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Nasty slimy live rock needs to be cleaned

Y

ynotme4886

I bought another tank last evening and it came with about 100lbs of live rock. This tank hadnt been maintained in over 7 months and the only thing left living in it was a sea cucumber and a clarkii clown. The previous owner said she had killed about $1000 worth of coral and livestock in the tank over that period of time by just not maintaining it.

I emptied all the live rock into a lrg tote and set it on my porch last evening. It smells so bad and is encrusted with so much red slime that there is no way my wife will let me bring it into the house. I didnt save any of the water from their tank cause the nitrate level was 80 ppm when we emptied it.

Whats the best way to clean this mess up. I dont care if the rock all dies off...at this point I am probably better off if it does. I am thinking about power washing it when I power wash the tank. Either that or soaking it in r/o water mixed with distilled white vinegar

Any suggestions would be appreciated
 
MikeNapoli

MikeNapoli

Welcome to NJRC.

I think the rock can be left out in the sun to bake. Then you can powerwash it and let it sit again. If you have a spare skimmer you can put it back in the container, add salt water, and skim it. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Be sure not to use soaps or cleansers in your "power washing" if you go that route.

I'd personally just use a clean nylon scrub brush on it under some tank water. The red slime should actually rinse off rather easily.
 
Y

ynotme4886

Well its soaking and it is nasty.... Looks like they had quite a few shrooms growing in there and they plastered themselves when they died onto the rock.

Am gonna let em soak and then rescrub and soak em again.

Even if it goes back to base rock its still worth the effort to clean it up. Its a base of figi and alot of branch was on the upper part.

I bought this setup yesterday and was told it was a 65 gal. It was in a very large room and stupid me didnt measure it before we ripped it apart. I got it home and looked at it and then decided to measure it. Its measurements are 48 L by 12.5 D by 25 H and has one corner overflow built in. I had never heard of a 67 gal tank. I dont know if this is a good thing or not.....was hoping for a standard 65gal of the 3ft variety. Next time I am gonna take my tape measure LOL
 
Y

ynotme4886

I didnt end up power washing it. I had an adjustable sprayer attachment for the hose and used that instead. Then I refilled the tank with water and distilled white vinegar. Its soaking now
 
H

harryk

you need to remove anything organic material on there and scrub it good and then let it recure. If you leave anything that was alive and it's decaying it will take a long time for it to be usable again

good luck
Harry
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
I have a 4' long 65 and I LOVE it! It is really a great shape. I'm sure once you get used to it you'll love it too!
 
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