Cleaning Liverocks

[vtech2]

I'm sure many of us have nightmares when we bring back liverocks (uncured) and even sometimes cures ones. The Pests that come along with them!

Was wondering what is the best method though to eliminate or at least try to eliminate all those crabs, mantis shrimps and worms.... Without totally kill of the beneficial bacteria...

Would Freshwater bath or hyposalinity alone do the job? N for how many hours should i soak the liverocks in?

[No_Floaters]

Most advice I've had says to soak it in freshwater for 15 minutes. That seems to kill most flat worms, bristle worms, and makes the crabs and shrimp jump out the holes.

That will not get rid of aiptasia or bubble algae. They have to be scrubbed off with a clean brush.

[searching4dan]

soak in freshwater??

u sure abt this??

[xersion]

soak in FW is a good idea.. but its highly not recommanded. if u wanna get all those pest out pop by into marine life thread on how to set up trap.

[cdckjn]

I'm sure many of us have nightmares when we bring back liverocks (uncured) and even sometimes cures ones. The Pests that come along with them!

Was wondering what is the best method though to eliminate or at least try to eliminate all those crabs, mantis shrimps and worms.... Without totally kill of the beneficial bacteria...

Would Freshwater bath or hyposalinity alone do the job? N for how many hours should i soak the liverocks in?

the last time, I soak for about 15 min, all the worms came out and died. When soaking I put a airstone with a air-pump to circulate the fresh water in a pail. 15- 20 min should do the trick to "kill" most pests.

[hammy]

soaking in fresh water pratically kill the beneficial bacteria too.

good and bad thing involve ...

anyway i never soak my rock in FW before, buring the cycling , the ammonia spike will kill almot all the wrom too... yuck!

[w3ish3ng]

soak in freshwater is a nono. you will firstly kill all the beneficial bacteria and will caused the rocks to leech out po4 over a long period of time, which will cause you to have algae problem

[vtech2]

well i guess its up to individual preferences. keep the beneficial bacteria & keep at least sm of the pests or lose the beneficial bacteria & at least sm of the pests.

A horrible experience to share before. Bought only abt 4 kg of uncured liverocks (8 small pieces) With it came, at least 6 bristleworms and 1 horrible grey colour worm tats almost 1 feet long and 2 mantis shrimps. Not too mention Crabs.

After freshwater dips, most of the pests cm off quickly.

[fishtalk1517]

Well, for me, I dipped it in F.W for abt 5-10 mins. U could imagine the pests that came out from the rock. U got rid of the pests but also the good bacteria too. Good thing is that u got ur "pests free rock" (not 100%) and takes some time to culture the good bacteria back. N no more worries of hitch hikers that comes along with the L.Rs

[madmac]

well i guess its up to individual preferences. keep the beneficial bacteria & keep at least sm of the pests or lose the beneficial bacteria & at least sm of the pests.

A horrible experience to share before. Bought only abt 4 kg of uncured liverocks (8 small pieces) With it came, at least 6 bristleworms and 1 horrible grey colour worm tats almost 1 feet long and 2 mantis shrimps. Not too mention Crabs.

After freshwater dips, most of the pests cm off quickly.

I would advise against soaking in fresh water. When you speak of 'live rocks', you're talking about bacteria, plants(algae) and inverts. Rocks like these are nutrient loaded. Some you'll want, some not. Soaking in fresh water will kill the things you'll want and not rid of those that most don't want (algae). After a fresh water soak, bacteria and inverts dies, some you'll see come off but most you wont'. They'll die inside the rocks! What happens after you put these loaded rocks into your tank is anyones guess.

Now if you do it with one rock, that may also be fine, but imagine doing with with 10s of kgs of rocks.

Bristle worms are ok, until they get real big, when they are small, they're more beneficial to the system than not. When they get big, its very difficult to not spot them as they'll have to find a big place to hide themselves, so most times, you'll be easily able to catch them.

If its the algae you want out, then soaking in freshwater won't help. It will very likely lead to an algae boom instead. You can consider rook-cooking if you like to preserve the 'live' but rid those that require lighting. It takes about 2 months to do a proper rook-cooking, done in the dark, so that autotrophic animals die, while heterotrophic animals still live.

[minireef]

madmac, there are full of wisdome there!

[sonicfrank]

so anyone knows the process of cooking LR??

[Ah-lim]

http://www.google.com.sg/search?sourceid=n...king+live+rocks

refer to the one by reef central.

[sonicfrank]

thanks bro^^

HAPPY REEFING

[wil_lee76]

previously in my old tank, i have CURED live rocks that never went through proper cleaning...but after few weeks...i discovered theres a bloody mantis hiding in it...so what i do? after reading & getting reference from reefers here...i took out all live rocks and start to soak in FRESHWATER...guess what...not only i did find small mantis...i found lots of bristle worms and some crabs...

BUT BUT not only that, I put them under the sun ... rem it kills everything...including bacteria...& others and thats become DEAD ROCKS...

I strongly advise reefers not to do this unless you can bring back their life....and rather..what u can do...every rocks you bring back...i would asked you to lay them out on a piece of newspaper and uses a spray (light) to spray some water....NOT SOAKING...uses a brush to clean and scrub out all alage.... u will see some crabs & bristle worms coming out...but not 100% clean lah!

Before you purchased any rocks from LFS...do rem...SMELL them like you SMELL durians...funny smell....then better dun bUy.... Live cured rocks wont smell that badly...

Hope these helps!

personal views and experiences!