Is it dead ?

I bought 50lbs of live rock from a local lady that was getting out of the hobby. 100 bucks !! Couldn't turn it down. My question is when I got the rock I took it out of the containers she had it in and put in it the sink and scrubbed it with a toothbrush and tap water. I know !! Bad idea. Didn't know at the time though. Did I kill the rock doing this ? And now it's been in the tank about six weeks and the rock is completely white. I only have a cheap T8 two bulb shop light since I was originally going fish only. Well now I want corals and I ordered a 4 bulb T5 fixture from Coralife. Will this light bring the rock back to life ?

 

Light has nothing to do with the rock being live. The rock becomes "live" when bacteria are established and living on it. Have you been ghost feeding the tank? Any fish in the tank? Have you tested your parameters?

 

You will need a source of ammonia for your tank to establish the bacteria that you need. Unfortunately you probably lost a lot when you washed with tap water. Anyway, you can ghost feed, put a fish in or use a product like Dr Tim's. I personally would avoid using a fish as i think it is a bit cruel. They usually die due to the ammonia which burns their gills. Go to the new member section and there are links to lots of stuff including cycling a tank. Good luck!!

 

Tank has been cycled for a month. Have three fish in there for 3 weeks. Everything is going great so far. Ammonia is 0. Nitrites and Nitrates have always been 0. Just was wondering if the light needed to be stronger to get coralline to start growing on there.

 

Coralline can be tricky. I've just gotten mine started growing.....that's weird though, I wouldn't think that scrubbing with a toothbrush and tap would have taken off the coralline......It will just take time - actually I've read where sometimes coralline can have stronger growth in lower light. It's the maturity and parameters that will get it going again.

 

The rock is actually stained purple where the coralline was. There are a few rocks that have what looks like 4 or 5 green stalk looking things on it. They look like they have grown a little since I got the rock.