old live rock

I had a 450 gallon marine tank with about 3cwt of live rock in it - sea apple killed all my fish and I lost interest - the rock has been in the water for over welve months and has a slight brown tinge of algea on it - as this tank is in our kitchen which is warm I doubt the water dropped much in temperature - no lights have been on so it's been in the dark all this time - I intended using the tank water on my pressure washer to rid myself of the algea - then I thought I would put it under the sea for six or eight weeks to see if I could regenerate it or get a bit of life back in it

any Ideas of whether this is good or bad?

also my 50 gallon sump has had no water through it for twelve months I expect all the beneficial bacterior has 'croaked' do I rip it all out and start again?

thanks

Dewi

 

Why not just rinse your LR and substrate and start your cycle again? Rinse the gunk off the LR, get the tank breathing, and add some bottled bacteria (Dr. Tim's and Super-Bac are my choices).

The tank will likely short cycle, but you'll want to challenge the system test it to be sure before you add any livestock.

Did you do anything to remove the sea apple's poison from the water (carbon, water changes, etc)? I can't say that I know how long the poison is viable, however, but I suspect that it breaks down over time.

 

no I just removed fifty dead fish and left the damn thing in there for another six months - I then returnrd it to the LFS who had in the meantime gone bankrupt - so he shoved it down a stormwater drain so no water changes at all

 

As in he put the LR into the sewer???

 

I had to google sea apple, wow I can see why you wanted one. Sorry for your loss.

I would do a 100% water change. Add carbon. bottled bacteria. And a test fish? Maybe a set of clowns??

 

no he shoved the sea apple down the sewer

 

I would bleach the rocks first then let it site in a garbage with fresh water for a week, rinse it a few times then soak again in ro/di water and start fresh

 

my 'supposed' LFS expert assured me the damn thing would be safe in my tank - I am glad he went bust I must say
cost me plenty

the definition of a so called x-pert

X is always the unknown quantity and a spurt is a drip under pressure ;D

 

I do not like using live anything - except for a few pieces of corraline encrusted shell or non-porous rock to seed my tank with purple stuff.

I have had bad experiences with hitchhikers ruining my tanks. And it is SO easy to cycle base rock with Dr. Tim's nitrifying bacteria. Only takes 12 days and you're in just as good shape as you would have been with live rock. And you've saved a lot of money...

THAT SAID...I would boil all of the rock. The only things that would likely survive over these months would be the things you don't want...

 

I would say don't boil the rock. You don't want to get stick if there's any thing on the rocks. Bleach water them then use dechlorinator on the rock