# How to clean rock...help needed ) pics post 5



## Aquaman

So I finally drug about a hundred lbs of rock home that had been in the 180 I bought . There is a lot of nice pieces and wish to clean it up. I have a few that are a bit on the greenish side ,, and wonder if bleaching is a good idea . The only this that concerns me is the loss of coulor as some of them have different coulored organisms ( for lack of a better word ) some are very small intricate worm type critters . I don't want to loose the colour. They actually are not as bad as some as far as algae go. Some are good looking as they are but should I do a quick bleach dip?
I will be keeping a few and putting some up here in the classifieds once I get them cleaned up and photos taken.....could be a while . 
Thanks in advance for any info guys.
bill

to clarify ..the rock has been sitting in buckets for over a year.


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## beN

3m Scrub pad..the kind that you use on dishes..maybe that might help. 
id steer away from cleaners at all costs..


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## budahrox

Go down to the hardware store & buy a big ole jug of Elbow Grease
& Git er done Old Fella!!!!!


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## O.C.D Fishies

Maybe use a baby brush they are fairly soft or a soft toothbrush. They might get off the easy stuff and not damage any of the other stuff you are trying to keep.


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## Aquaman

budahrox said:


> Go down to the hardware store & buy a big ole jug of Elbow Grease
> & Git er done Old Fella!!!!!


OH MY !!! with all the comedian's out of work its kinda funny that your looking for a job  
How the heck are you anyways old one .We gotta hook up for a laugh or somthing here soon.

OH pics ....this is almost tooo easy ( click and drag ...)



























^^ the worm lookin things are hard coral ..at first I thought ..UHHGG! but to my surprise 


















Preety tough to clean with a scrub brush I would think.......
will let you know how it goes


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## Smiladon

If you find out a good way, be sure to let me know as I might have to clean my limestones as well.

Maybe a PP (Potassium Permanganate) dip might work? On the other hand it could potentially make the whole rock look uuuugly because its an oxidizing agent.


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## Aquaman

Well I have had coral in my tanks till they became ugly as sin .I just took them and let em sit for a few days in a mildly bleached tub of water and they came out lily white .. I rinsed them well and sat them in the sun for a few days. Returned them to the tank and never had a problem. That was a fresh water tank and there were clown loaches and a few easy to kill fish and no losses.
That was fresh water .....I wish to reuse thesse for salt water (well a few sellect ones at least ). 
Most are okay and cleaned up well .My biggest concern would be something alive in there and then selling it to someone and giving them problems.
Is a quick dip for them unadvisable?
Sorry for the long post


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## Aquaman

ummm.would real hot water and lots of salt work ....or vinager ? I spent an hour scrubbing 2 small pieces that included using sharp objects scrubbers and Dawns toothbrush ......looks better but not really that less green .


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## cichlid

boiling rocks, there is a ditch near my house I get rocks from, we just boil them.


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## Aquaman

yea boiling will kill a lot but dont think the coral would hold up as well as a rock would . I have had big pots on my stove doing the same  Do you live in Richmond ...( ditches  )..I see lots out there ..oh! just looked ...same with abby.


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## fkshiu

Are you planning on using this for SW?

If you are *THEN STOP!!!! DO NOT BOIL OR BLEACH THE ROCK!!!!*

I have no idea why people pay all this money to buy "live" rock and then proceed to kill everything by doing something silly like boiling or bleaching it. It is called "live" rock for a reason people!

And never ever boil still live rock - your entire house will smell like death (and I mean rotting rancid corpse in the summer death) and then some.

What you do to get rid of nuisance algae is to put the rock in a rubbermaid bin with heater saltwater and a powerhead. Put a cover on and keep it slightly ajar so there's some air flow. Every week swish the water around and use then powerhead to blow the crap off the rock. Then do a water change. After a few weeks most of the rock will become quite clean. Keep doing this for a few months and the rock will be sparkling clean AND most everything will still be alive.

Algae and other nuisances need light and nutrients to survive. By covering the bin you are denying it light. By changing the water and taking out the crud and not adding anything else but clean SW back in you are denying it nutrients. Therefore the nuisance algae will die over time

Live rock is an extremely valuable and surprisingly resilient resource. It is special and unique. Do not mindlessly kill it just because there's a bit of algae on it. Remember: nothing good in SW happens quickly. Do not take short cuts.


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## gklaw

Your rock look perfectly fine. Give it a good rinse and let it cycle without light or little light. If you bleach them, the moment they see light, they will turn green on you. Why start a SW and want the sterile bleached white?

As fkshiu says, be patient, give them 6 months. If you keep you water and light condition right, you should see the colour develop.


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## Aquaman

First off I am pretty sure that there is not much life in it..it has been sitting in 3 new plastic garbage cans ( with out lids ) for over a year ( 18 months? ) I wish to keep some of it and sell the rest.
One of the cans look like it was near a dryer vent ( fluff over the top layer ) Most of it does look nice I agree ,but what about "lord knows" what got on them over that period of time I should use more sentences shouldn't I 
So is bleaching still no good for unlike rock ? .as I realized it would kill anything alive..or am I not understanding this completely 
One reason I ask is I have some beautifully pieces that I've collected over the years and wish to use them in a saltwater tank one day.


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## gklaw

OK then. Bleach if theat make you feel better 

I bleach old equipment often enough. I woudl use just plain old blach with as little added stuff as possible. Just make sure you rinse really well and soak in clean water for a few days. Does not hurt to rinse with chlorine remover jsut to be on the safe side.

Yes you will end up with dead rock but they will come back to life if you add a few other good pieces in to seed them.


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## fkshiu

What kind of water were they sitting in for 18 months - SW or FW? If it was SW then I guarantee there is still a lot of life left inside.

As I said live rock is incredibly resilient, I know someone who left some LR in an unheated garage over winter out of water. It was completely dried. Within a month or two after placing it back into SW he saw small bits of green star polyp emerge.

My point is that people give up on LR far too easily. 

As far as being concerned about "God knows what got into it", what exactly are you concerned about getting into it? 

Insects? Can't live in SW. 

Disease of some sort? From where would this disease come from in a bin? And the vast majority of diseases such as SW ich will die without a fish host so having it in a bin for so long is actually good. 

Chemicals or heavy metals? Bleach won't do anything. If invert deadly copper has somehow seeped in it's there for good.

Dryer lint? Biodegradeable, I toss it in my composter.

Cat took a pee in it? More ammonia to the nitrifying bacteria to feed on.

You also do not gain any time advantage by bleaching. It will take months for the live rock to become a biofilter again. During the same time you could have the rock percolating away in a covered bin preserving the interesting life therein.


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## Aquaman

They were sitting in empty garbage pails and filled up with rain water etc ...sitting out in the open. Most of them I scrubbed pretty well. Some I have bleached.( mainly the small ones ) I will soak them in prime and water for a while as well.


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## 182

I'd take fkshiu's advice and try to 'revive' it, if you've got the time and space. You'll be amazed at the critters that can hang on for so long. It'll save you quite a bit of money, too, when it comes time to set up your SW.


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## gimlid

You getting into salt already Bill?


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## onefishtwofish

so i guess blow torching them is uncalled for? just a bit..............? we do it on driftwood


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## Aquaman

gimlid said:


> You getting into salt already Bill?


Not yet but would be nice in the future  All I need is to turn my lower 180 into a sump and drill the upper one for overflows...oh and MONEY I need that as well .... I have the lights and the skimmer just a matter of time. I would however have to get rid of all the fish in them first....that would be the biggest step ...and I am not doing that yet .


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## fkshiu

If you are saving the rocks for a future SW tank then there is absolutely no reason to bleach them. You have time on your side so simply let them re-cure on their own in a covered tub of SW. As I said earlier, bleaching the rock will simply delay the time it takes for the rock to become alive again.

Secondly, why do you want sparkly white rocks in the first place? Live rock in SW is not static like rock in FW. It will constantly change its appearance as various creatures and algae (including beneficial ones) grow on it. White rock does not stay white for long in a healthy SW tank. In fact, as corals grow on the rock they literally become part of it by fusing to rock and adding to it. This is exactly the same way how coral reefs have developed over the last 100 million years or so. 

So, please, put down the bleach. It really is completely unnecessary.


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## bvlester

bleach will render the rock useless as it will leach into your tank and kill other stuff including fish. You can use a syringe or a turkey baster with boiling water this will kill some of the stuff on the rock but not all life if you bast the rock where the algea is it will kill it keep the rock turned in a way that only the area where the algae is gets treated the boiling water will kill the organisms in the rock where it saturates into. so go slow and you can do it i have and even save some of the tube worms in the process. a tooth brush after also helps to get the dead stuff off. most Coraline will survive a quick rinse and some of the tube worms will also.

Bill


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## scherzo

+1 on the re-viving the LR.

I would also be a little afraid of the bleach in LR. Live Rock is quite porous and could (although I am just making an educated guess) soak in some bleach and leach into the tank. I know that prime would neutralize it but there are so many tiny holes in LR that you never know what could be left.

If you did bleach it, I would cook the rock for a few months. I've cooked rock for over a year and just recently put it into a tank and have had no cycle. A few little feathery corals have just started to emerge! No waterchanges for about 10 months in a sealed rubbermaid.

This also makes the rock "live" again and will give you less headaches when you startup the tank. I'm cooking some rock now.


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## bvlester

I PM this guy with instructions on what to do as I do this often even if the rock has no algae on it I still cycle it but I have a skimmer in there also. The only thing I found a sea clone good for is when cycling rock and converting them into a phosban reactor. you do not need the U tube just connect the power head to the bottom of the skimmer inlet. It skims pretty good in a small tub of water with lost of algae on the rocks. as the algae dies off the skimmer pulls the free floating algae out of the water and along with the algae the phosphates in it. The rock does not absorb the phosphates and you don't have this problem again, unless you over feed or over stock and neglect your tank.

Bill



fkshiu said:


> Are you planning on using this for SW?
> 
> If you are *THEN STOP!!!! DO NOT BOIL OR BLEACH THE ROCK!!!!*
> 
> I have no idea why people pay all this money to buy "live" rock and then proceed to kill everything by doing something silly like boiling or bleaching it. It is called "live" rock for a reason people!
> 
> And never ever boil still live rock - your entire house will smell like death (and I mean rotting rancid corpse in the summer death) and then some.
> 
> What you do to get rid of nuisance algae is to put the rock in a rubbermaid bin with heater saltwater and a powerhead. Put a cover on and keep it slightly ajar so there's some air flow. Every week swish the water around and use then powerhead to blow the crap off the rock. Then do a water change. After a few weeks most of the rock will become quite clean. Keep doing this for a few months and the rock will be sparkling clean AND most everything will still be alive.
> 
> Algae and other nuisances need light and nutrients to survive. By covering the bin you are denying it light. By changing the water and taking out the crud and not adding anything else but clean SW back in you are denying it nutrients. Therefore the nuisance algae will die over time
> 
> Live rock is an extremely valuable and surprisingly resilient resource. It is special and unique. Do not mindlessly kill it just because there's a bit of algae on it. Remember: nothing good in SW happens quickly. Do not take short cuts.


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## Aquaman

Hey thanks for all the advice ..and e-mails . Unfortunately I did bleach the worst pieces and have since put them in a few tanks and put some ( scrubbed and unbleached ) away in storage for future use. I still have 20-30 lbs that I have not touched and will take you guys advice on it. 
I thought best to clean some of the worst and put away as it will be a year or so before I swap my 180's over to salt .
Thanks again for the advice ...though I am sorry that I jumped on my idea to quick as I was strapped for time and space. Lesson learned 
bill


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## darb

personally I would have put them in the dishwasher, as long as it was a rental .....


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