reef rocks as fill dirt!!! help?

I recently decided to start a reef tank and couldent find any good deals on live rock, one of my friends told me that his grandmother had coral as decorations in her garden years back and they just tossed it into a sink hole and covered it up, i went digging and found at least 20 or 30, 50lb rocks and one or two that i could barely lifte, is it posible to clean theas peases up and safely use them in my tank?

 

Yes, I have several pieces in my tank. Remember, the more porous rocks are the ones you want. Lots of holes.

 

Some fertilizers have copper and other metallic salts in them. Almost all have high levels of phosphate. I would nuke them in bleach for 48 hours, then dry them in the sun for a week or more, then soak in salt water for another week, checking frequently for metals and phosphates. If nothing leeches into the water in 10-14 days you *might* be ok.

I used to collect natural river rocks for my FW tanks and that's what I did to prevent bacteria and parasites. The porous nature of corals leaves a lot more space to hold bad stuff.

 

Yep you can use them. I went on a collection spree myself this weekend. In fact, these are not really considered live rock. "Live rock" is rock from the ocean that has been introduced into a saltwater aquarium, which confers to the closed marine system multiple benefits ...These are rocks removed from the vicinity of a tropical coral reef with all of the life intact on them. They commonly have algae, sponges, worms, feather dusters, small crustaceans, polyps and urchins on them.
The rocks she has may be considered as base rock. After some time however, the rocks do become "live" inside an aquarium as a result of algae and bacterial growth.

My only concern with these rocks would be chemical residue since they were previously used as garden decor. If I were you, I would definitely take them but make sure they're cleaned properly. Use either bleach or boil them. I use lots of bleach but counter act the bleach with sodium thiosulfate.
cheers

 

Greysoul beat me to the bleach option. I have a question though, how do we test for metals leaching into the water?

 

how would i go about removing dirt and grim from the pores? i cracked one rock open (about 2ft x 1.5ft) to see how far the dirt went in, it fills up about the first half inch but little spiders and such were all the way to the center, could i pressure wash the rocks before i nuke them with bleach and set them out to sun?

 

Yea you could pressure wash them but IMO no need for that extra work. When you're bleaching them, try to move them up and down in the bucket with the bleach-water solution to shake out the dirt. Do this shaking action over 10 min intervals and be sure that all the dirt is out. The bleach would take care of the bacteria

 

lol skip the bucket im gonna have to get a 55gal drum

 

You'd test the water before adding the rocks to get a base line, then test every so often for a few weeks and see if the levels go up.

 

m2c... you could pressure wash them to get your mind at ease. I usually soak mine in a 55 gallon drum for an hour or so to soften the dirt and when I take them out of the the barrel I shake them up and down while twisting them fast like a cork screw for a minute. When I take them out of the one 55, I put them in another 55 with strong bleach, like a gallon, let them soak over night and bleach will aerate over about a week and become neutral but if you wanna really be sure, just buy a dechlorinator and still let them sit out for a week or more. That will sterilize anything and make it good base rock... That's what I do anyway.