what to clean rock with to start over

I am starting my tank over and I would like to completely scrub the rock clean... is there anything I should use or just old fashioned water/brush...? I would like the rock to be 100% "dead" and not use anything harmful to get it that way.

 

I once used my high pressure water blaster to clean my rocks and it did a great job, only water involved.

 

What was the problem with the rocks that you think you need to start over. It is probably never necessary to do so unless the tank was contaminated with copper or some toxin IMO.

If you are starting over because you think the rocks may be leaching nutrients, the only quick way to remove them is muratic acid. If you want to get rid of algae, keep them in the dark bucket of saltwater for a month or so, with a powerhead. Change out the water regularly.

As I said though, these steps are drastic and not probably almost never neccessary. In 10 years I've never had to start over, pretty much every problem has a solution, although it may take patience, but that's what this hobby is about really.

 

If it is algae you are dealing with, do a blackout. A week will kill most algae. After the week do a large water change. You do not want to kill the rock because then you would just have to cycle it again which could take months.

 

Hmm. .. some more info would be helpful. What's "harmful" if you'd like the rock to be 100% dead? Will you be "killing" the rock in the tank or outside of it?

The pressure washer at a car wash bay would rip everything off the rock. A soak in a bucket with bleachwater would be more comprehensive; but would require freshwater soaks or air-drying to render it again suitable for a marine tank.

If you had no time restraints; as one poster mentioned, you could put the rock in a dark bucket with aeration and a powerhead, and change the water periodically. This would cure the rock and make it as clean as a whistle.

What's the issue and what are your specific goals?

 

I guess I should've given a background... long story short I was dealing with bad algae and just a system that was not healthy. I use RO/DI water and all parameters tested 0, after about 2 months of dealing with the dirty tank everything slowly faded away. I bought a cleanup crew and all the snails died within a few days (never did look healthy because they were always laying over on their shells and never moving around a lot). Then the coral went and then lastly the fish including the damsels. I could never get to the root cause of this but I know it was something more serious than just the water conditions because like I said the water was high quality and tested perfect. Also the damsels never died due to poor conditions when I was using conditioned tap water. After the last clown died I turned off the lights and left the system running dark to try and rid my tank of the algae issues. I turned the lights off at the beginning of December and after about a month the algae wasn't spreading but is still on the rock. Finally I decided it would be a waste to try adding livestock because I still don't know what was killing everything. I turned off the entire system (lights/pumps/skimmer/powerheads/the whole smash...) It has been completely shut down since about the beginning of January. Now that the weather is warming up and the livestock being shipped here is healthier this time of year I would like to get it back up and running. Since I had those issues described I am deciding to just start over... new cycle, need more powerheads because I don't think my flow was enough, new sand because I made a rookie mistake and rinsed all the sand with unconditioned tap water when I was transferring from my 90 gal. to my 120gal. I think that was the main cause of most of the issues in the tank. Everything in the tank is dead now so it just makes more sense to me to start from scratch and do it right this time. I have been in the hobby now for about 3 years and learned from my mistakes in that time so I think I will have a much better experience this go 'round. Here are some pics of the tank before I shut it down and of the 90gal. before transferring to the 120gal.... I thought the tank looked healthy and was thriving right before I changed to the new tank (which is why I think rinsing the sand with tap water caused a lot of the problem).

 

more pics of the tank before the drastic downhill change

Before the change over

 

After the change to the 120

As you can see these pics were not immediately after the switch but everything died over time except the clowns and a few fish... you can also see the start of the "dirty tank" issues.

 

final phase when algae got really bad

I needed new bulbs and I don't know why but someone suggested dual 7500/10k daylight bulbs... after putting those in the algae got really bad. After some research I found that these bulbs are prime for growing algae which made sense... after the last fish died I was so frustrated at the time/money invested to fight the issues and I just shut the whole thing down until now.

 

Wow...sorry for your lose...I wouldn't kill the rock...its the water quality that really is at fault...due to low lighting...I'd get a bucket and scrub brush...and start over slowly..

I noticed you have a canister....I.M.O that's a big no no...that's a nitrate factory...I removed mine about 6 months ago...and haven't had a nitrate reading over 10ppm since.

90 GALLON (BOTTOM DRILLED)DISPLAY
IN DISPLAY TANK;

180 LBS FIJI PREMIUM LIVE ROCK
90 LBS LIVE SAND
(3) 50 GPH POWERHEADS
(2) 1300 GPH POWER HEADS

30 GALLON SUMP
IN SUMP;
40 LBS LIVE SAND
55 LBS FIJI PREMIUM LIVE ROCK.
PHOSBAN REACTOR(150)
10 WATT U.V STEROLIZER (DONT HAVE AN ICK PROB)BUT JUST IN CASE
CORALIFE SUPER SKIMMER(150)
CORALIFE SUPER SKIMMER(65)
THEY WORK GREAT FOR ME!
(ELITE) 200 WATT HEATER
LIGHTING IN DISPLAY;
T5 NOVAS 48 INCH(6 BULB FIXTURES)
48 INCH MARINLAND L.E.D REEF LIGHTING(18K)
48 INCH (24) BLUE LED MOONLIGHT

LIGHTING ;
IN SUMP
30-90 WATT FLOOD LAMP

(MY UNDERWATER KIDS)...SAILFIN TANG,YELLOW TANG,YELLOW HEAD ANGELFISH,DIAMOND WATCHMAN GOBY,(2) BLUE GREEN CHROMIS
(4) ATLANTIC SEA ANENOMES,(20) MEXICAN TURBO SNAILS,(6)CERITH SNAILS,(10)RED LEGGED HERMIT CRABS,(10) BLUE LEGGED HERMIT CRABS,

IN SUMP;
(2)GREEN EMERALD CRABS
(5) BLUE LEGGED HERMIT CRABS
(5) RED LEGGED HEMIT CRABS

GOOD WATER QUALITY AND GOOD WATER MOVEMENT IS THE KEY!!!

TO tHoSe WhO rOcK...WiTh A fiLTeR sOcK.....
>>>>>>> I SOLUTE YOU <<<<<<<<

iMa bE 90 YEaRs OLd DoIn a 30% wAtEr ChAnGe...jUsT HaNd ME My CaNe aNd My SYPhON HoSe....IMa bE rOcKiN TilL I dIe...