"burning" live rock

I bought a little bit of live rock from a family member... almost no flow in his tank and some algae... not a healthy tank at all. otty recommended "burning" (killing) it so I soaked it in 50/50 bleach water for 3 days, freshwater for 4 days, 2 lbs. baking soda for 4 days, rinsed it off and am now letting it dry out. i trust him 100% on this (its fair to say he knows 1 million times as much as me about saltwater!) but just wanted to ask everyone else's experience/comments. dont figure i can get too many opinions!

 

Otty is right that should kill anything on it LOL I would have scrubbed it with some plain ole water and then with vinegar.

 

pretty hardcore, but that guy knows his stuff!

 

I've done this....it's works well. If you seed the tank with some live rock, the bacteria will migrate to killed live rock rapidly.

 

Tangster and I have treated live rock in this manner many times with no ill effects.

 

wouldnt leaving the rock out to dry for about 6 months also kill everything not wanted?

 

I would of thought bleaching it would kill everything too

 

Not really bacteria's can live up inside the dampness for a long time I have used this methoed for yr as have I the same old rock over and over with a soaking in between new tanks.

 

you cant buy experiance but you can gain it, or you ask tangster if its cosure with him Id think its a safe bet

 

you basically made it into a plain old peace of dead rock.chances are,you will trigger a cycle when its added to the tank.if i have a problem with my live rock that i paid $5 a pound or more for,i pull off the algae and put some kalkwasser on the aiptasia.i put it in the tank and if i still get algae then i look at what may be causing it.algae spores are supposed to last over 7 yrs,just waiting for favorable conditions to grow again.i've had algae on most of my rock and all i ever did was use better filters and check my water till it slowly went away.send me all the algae covered rock and i'll buy you some nice clean tuffa any time.