do i need to clean my live rock?

[shoelevy]

hmm...someone did mention killing everything then culturing the good bacteria and stuff again.

what would be your opinion on this terryansimon?

[eques]

1) flushing your liverocks with freshwater is equal to pouring acid on your bed and then lying on it. its the same for your liverocks. you'll be killing EVERYTHING *GOOD and bad* so do weigh the consequences of your actions before proceeding.

2) not all worms/hitch hikers are irritants. in fact, certain worms actually help in the stirring of sand so as to prevent clumping within the sand bed itself.

this is the best way and the fastest way to settle the worms and all others things. it is always better be safe then sorry . to shift the sand bed you can always buy golden head gobies and wrasse. for the coraline algae can last at tap water more than one days . expect for worm there will also be mantise , and other parasite. it is more safe to have a life rock with only algae and nothing else.

[FuEl]

1) flushing your liverocks with freshwater is equal to pouring acid on your bed and then lying on it. its the same for your liverocks. you'll be killing EVERYTHING *GOOD and bad* so do weigh the consequences of your actions before proceeding.

2) not all worms/hitch hikers are irritants. in fact, certain worms actually help in the stirring of sand so as to prevent clumping within the sand bed itself.

I agree totally. When I tore down my old reef I found 2 peanut worms in it! I wonder how they got there although I never seen them before. Beautiful worms that don't bother anything in the tank at all. Wanted to give them away but flushed them as I did'nt think anyone would pick up worms.

[terryansimon]

this is the best way and the fastest way to settle the worms and all others things. it is always better be safe then sorry . to shift the sand bed you can always buy golden head gobies and wrasse. for the coraline algae can last at tap water more than one days . expect for worm there will also be mantise , and other parasite. it is more safe to have a life rock with only algae and nothing else.

what if...hypothetically, you destroy ALL your organisms within the rock itself. wouldn't it become a DEAD rock then? although that is a hypothetical situation, but such things can and may happen.

pray tell you do know those sand sifting animals are not really stirring your sandbed but eating the microrganisms present within the sandbed itself. to put it bluntly, its literally bleeding the life out of the sand bed.

I'd say just use either a high salinity dip to flush out the hitchhikers, or just leave them in the tank. personally, I left 100kg worth of liverocks in my tank with hitch hiker and all. although I have some vagabond pistol shrimps that irritate me some times, apart from that, the fauna that came along with it has been instrumental in the setup of my tank, be it stirring my sandbed for me with minimum destruction like sandsifting creatures *gobies and wrasses*, scavengers for dead fish and unconsumed food material, and a lot more other things.

and oh yah, a bristleworm even donated some of its spikes to me when I accidentally touched it.

[eques]

maybe you are right .