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bawest · 03-16-2008, 07:39 PM

I've had ongoing conversations about this topic, but I'm curious about live rock leaching contaminates into our reef tanks. Here are some examples.

1. You buy live rock off the internet and you cure it.... how do you know that they didn't pull this rock out of some polluted beach somewhere (and since I'm in Texas) next to an oil rig? How long would it take to get the oil/contaminates out of the rock before it's safe for your aquarium?

2. You're on a family vacation to Floriday, you get up early and find rock that is just totally covered with coraline algae on it.... you think it's cool, so to your wife's disastifaction, you leave out the souveniors to pack it in your suitcase. How long do you have to cure it before it's safe to add to your tank?

3. You get some rock off of a guy who has used tap water for his tank, it's completely covered with hair algae? how long before you can add it to your tank (of course after the hair algae is gone, but how long after that?)

4. You buy rock from a pet shop and then you find out they dose with copper in their tank. How long before the copper has leached out and it's safe to add to your tank?

I know Otty..... NUKE THE ROCK in all cases.

But otherwise, how long will the rocks leach into your system? If it is months or a year, how can we buy live rock and put it into our tanks? We don't know where this stuff comes from when we buy it from Ebay or the net? Supposedly, they aren't taking the rock off the reefs, so if it is only the crap that gets washed up or is in the bays, how do we know it's safe and it won't screw with our tanks for 6 months to a year?

So, Here's the question: How long does it take for the following to truly leach out of the rocks?

Dead animals?

Copper?

Silicates?

Phosphate?

Nitrate?

Iron?

And what other items should we watch for?

03-16-2008, 07:39 PM	#1 (permalink)
bawest Bristle Worm Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Texas Age: 40 Posts: 146 Karma: 49	live rock contamination, leeching I've had ongoing conversations about this topic, but I'm curious about live rock leaching contaminates into our reef tanks. Here are some examples. 1. You buy live rock off the internet and you cure it.... how do you know that they didn't pull this rock out of some polluted beach somewhere (and since I'm in Texas) next to an oil rig? How long would it take to get the oil/contaminates out of the rock before it's safe for your aquarium? 2. You're on a family vacation to Floriday, you get up early and find rock that is just totally covered with coraline algae on it.... you think it's cool, so to your wife's disastifaction, you leave out the souveniors to pack it in your suitcase. How long do you have to cure it before it's safe to add to your tank? 3. You get some rock off of a guy who has used tap water for his tank, it's completely covered with hair algae? how long before you can add it to your tank (of course after the hair algae is gone, but how long after that?) 4. You buy rock from a pet shop and then you find out they dose with copper in their tank. How long before the copper has leached out and it's safe to add to your tank? I know Otty..... NUKE THE ROCK in all cases. But otherwise, how long will the rocks leach into your system? If it is months or a year, how can we buy live rock and put it into our tanks? We don't know where this stuff comes from when we buy it from Ebay or the net? Supposedly, they aren't taking the rock off the reefs, so if it is only the crap that gets washed up or is in the bays, how do we know it's safe and it won't screw with our tanks for 6 months to a year? So, Here's the question: How long does it take for the following to truly leach out of the rocks? Dead animals? Copper? Silicates? Phosphate? Nitrate? Iron? And what other items should we watch for?