Question Cleaning Dry Rock before cycling....

[ReefnQueens]

It feels weird posting on here again for the first time in about 6-7 years...which is roughly how long my (once live rock) dry rock has been sitting dry. Over the years the rock has been in my attic, mancave, garage and now in a 40 gallon brute pail in my kitchen lol, its seen alot of dust and maybe a lil saw dust, its still dry but im getting ancy on wanting to start the cycling process, i thought for sh!ts and giggles maybe blowing all the pieces off with a cordless electric leaf blower, then i thought maybe i should make up some rodi water and salt in the 40 gallon brute just to do a rinse on them then discard that water then start cycling in a new batch......6-7 years i did have an aptasia breakout before breaking the tank down , just wanted to throw that in there, basically what im asking is what are your thoughts on cleaning the rock pre-cycling? ive invested quite a bit on a new tank and equipment so far and im currently building its unique stand so i really just want to get this tank started out on the right foot, i will start a tank thread soon, looking foward to your feedback , thanks guys

 

[BYU]

you tube
but i would acid wash with then bleach
then leave it in the sun for a day or two
brs did a nice video about it too

 

[homegrowncichlid]

I'd just use it as is, set up the whole thing, cycle it, let the nutrient's leach out, then do 1 full water change, you're ready. (You can save money on the salt for the first cycle, then add salt water after.)

I moved 2 years ago and reused my rocks in my set up last year. When I moved I killed off everything, (zoos, sponges, everything encrusted on) by placing them in a bucket of sea water with no water movement. Everything died out in a smelly mess, water turned black, rinsed it off, dried it out. When I set it up again, there were some surviving hair algae spores. Nothing else on a macroscopic level survived. Went though a couple of algae blooms, so set yourself up with snails and hermit crabs after the water change. The nutrients were probably still leaching for a few months and I was growing different sorts of algae on the rocks, but the algae was not growing on anything else, which is why you should add the clean up crew. At this point, any minor leaching was (I assume) being adsorbed by the algae and not escaping into the water.

 

[ReefnQueens]

you tube
but i would acid wash with then bleach
then leave it in the sun for a day or two
brs did a nice video about it too

thanks dude, im aware thats ok to do but im still too scared to do that lol

 

[BYU]

i did it
pretty easy

 

[ReefnQueens]

I'd just use it as is, set up the whole thing, cycle it, let the nutrient's leach out, then do 1 full water change, you're ready. (You can save money on the salt for the first cycle, then add salt water after.)

I moved 2 years ago and reused my rocks in my set up last year. When I moved I killed off everything, (zoos, sponges, everything encrusted on) by placing them in a bucket of sea water with no water movement. Everything died out in a smelly mess, water turned black, rinsed it off, dried it out. When I set it up again, there were some surviving hair algae spores. Nothing else on a macroscopic level survived. Went though a couple of algae blooms, so set yourself up with snails and hermit crabs after the water change. The nutrients were probably still leaching for a few months and I was growing different sorts of algae on the rocks, but the algae was not growing on anything else, which is why you should add the clean up crew. At this point, any minor leaching was (I assume) being adsorbed by the algae and not escaping into the water.

basically what i did except i did end up hitting it with the turbo on my leaf blower lol , youd be surprised the clouds of dust that came off, after that i just threw it in the brute can , i got a 5 gallon bucket of tropic marin proreef for the tank and a smaller bucket of the classic for the cycle

 

[ReefnQueens]

i did it
pretty easy

i believe ya , i personally got stuck on the what if this what if that ...... if what i ended up doing ends up hurting me somehow ill give it a try , thanks for the reply dude