Turning Liverock into Dry Rock and back

[Europhyllia]

Okay so the process was...?
soak in bleach (what concentration?) and then place in regular saltwater?
what is teh purpose of the anhydrous baking soda?
In fact what is anhydrous baking soda (nonwater...)?

Man it will be nice having a tank without caulerpa. Makes me giddy just thinking about it!

[Bill S]

I used about 2 cups of bleach in a 20 gallon tub. Left it sit for 2 or 3 days.

Soaked in regular changes of fresh water (hose water).

Take a box of baking soda, bake it at 300 for an hour. It drives off the CO2. Sprinkle the rock with the baking soda, then dump it into the water. Not sure why I did this, except that it was easier than using a blow torch, which I considered. The harsh chemical reaction should burn off anything that is left, and it's harmless in the tank (within reason).

[Europhyllia]

I think I might just go with the abbreviated version of bleach and then cycle. Thanks!

[RayAllen]

Karin the rock I got from you as well as the other 160lbs I have I put out on the patio. Pressure washed all sides and baked in the sun for three days. I flipped the rock over everyday so the hole rock got sun. This really worked well.

I personally like the color differences each rock has. Prefer that versus a tank full of white rock.

[Europhyllia]

Well I decided to play it safe and bleached it. around 3 1/2 cups of bleach in 20 gallons of water.
I wonder if the dry rock sellers do something similar because it turned it white (as predicted) and my used rocks look pretty much like the dry rock pukani you can buy.
Feeling good about this now.
Can't wait till they're dry so I can do some more rock scaping with the nylon rods and then hopefully cycle all of the structures fully assembled.

[Europhyllia]

Rinsed them off and getting ready to start a fresh water/RO bath with Prime Dechlorinator, then drying out and rock scaping, then cycling!

[Mike]

After we got the 75g we had the live rock it came with sitting in a tub in the garage w/ power heads. No heater and no lights in December. I was amazed all of the aptasia came through it with no problem. Why can't we have the same success with the stuff we actually want to keep alive.

[chunkymonkey]

maybe a stupid question, but I'll have about 40-50lbs of rock that I'm going to be bringing back to life. So apology ahead of time...lol...I plan on bleaching all the rock, completely rinse, thhen place in a 55gallon tank with only a filter and mixed salt water. How will I know when the rock is ready? Some people say something about the smell(rotton eggs) being gone. But is there a sure fire way to tell. Also, when "back to life" am I able to place the 40-50lbs directly into my 100 gallon that already has other rock and fish, or do I slowly introduce the rocks over the course of a couple weeks?

[Europhyllia]

I will cycle the rock as if it was in a new aquarium only that I will do it in a big rubbermaid.
Once they come our of the RO/dechlorinater bath they'll be set to completely dry. I'll scrub off any remnants of stuff and then it goes into the cycling tub.
I am torn between just seeding it with live sand bacteria from my old tank or get a bottle of Fritz and be extra safe...
I'll feed it a little food and just measure ammonia, nitrite and nitrite to follow the cycle and I would consider it safe when despite food inputs and decay from the rocks all of these values drop to acceptable levels.