I'm not sure if it's been asked before by I couldn't find it when I searched. I'm converting my tank from SW to FW so I have a lot of extra stuff I wont need, like Live Rock that is now dead rock. My question is if cleaned properly wouldn't this rock make for good filtration? It would be similar to using ceramic media, especially if you break the rock into rock rubble. I have close to 150lbs of it so i was thinking of filling the media section of my 55g sump with half sponges, half rock and I would incorporate filter pad/floss into the system as well.
rock filtration
- Thread starter jojo727
- Start date
if its dead rock now, youll want to get all the SW corpses and future corpses off which may take alot of boiling, and/or baking, drying, crumbling, and repeating- depending on the type of life and how many generations was on it- something always seems to pop up no matter how long its been sitting dry in the sun
I dont know that Id bother- its not going to have the same effect as it did on the salt tank- it would probably have a similar result as lava rock- and only if you can get all the death 100% off to avoid any spikes in the parameters
good luck
I dont know that Id bother- its not going to have the same effect as it did on the salt tank- it would probably have a similar result as lava rock- and only if you can get all the death 100% off to avoid any spikes in the parameters
good luck
thanks for the advice. it would only be for bio filtration. i agree it wont have the same effect as SW and any old life wouldnt benefit the FW system but it is going to be a PITA to make sure every piece of dead life is off the rock...but it's worth a try.
It might be worthwhile to sell the dead rock to a saltwater hobbyist and then spend that money on somehting else to use as 'bio media'...
But broken up into nugget sized chunks, I see no reason why it won't work as well as nuget type bio media...
keep in mind that your former live rock is calsium based and will therefore have an affect on PH/KH... this may or may not be desired...
But broken up into nugget sized chunks, I see no reason why it won't work as well as nuget type bio media...
keep in mind that your former live rock is calsium based and will therefore have an affect on PH/KH... this may or may not be desired...
I'de talk to your LFS about tradeing it for bio-media. ime lava rock, dead rock, ect.. make okay at best bio-filter media. they tend to break-down and leech crap into a system. Crushed coral is often used in african cichlid tanks to maintain similar PH as you find is SW systems. a majority of fish can not tolerate such PH, and even more plants ime, and very few invertibrates.
Honestly it would depend on what your FW stocking plan for tha tank is as to how safe the idea really is.
It would be alot of elbow grease and weeks of cureing to truely turn "dead rock" into fw safe rock. I dropped a peice of liverock into a 5 gallon bucket of FW a few summers ago to see how long it would take to "cure it".. 2 monthes later I was still emptying out the bucket and refilling it w/ fresh water from the die offs. I changed the water out fairly regularly 2-3 times a week. So by no means was it a "fast and effective" method. the chunk of rock was about the size of 2 fists together. The rock was still "shedding" for awhile more. until I dumped the bucket out 'cause i needed it for something 'n tossed the rock in my garden.. lol.
Honestly it would depend on what your FW stocking plan for tha tank is as to how safe the idea really is.
It would be alot of elbow grease and weeks of cureing to truely turn "dead rock" into fw safe rock. I dropped a peice of liverock into a 5 gallon bucket of FW a few summers ago to see how long it would take to "cure it".. 2 monthes later I was still emptying out the bucket and refilling it w/ fresh water from the die offs. I changed the water out fairly regularly 2-3 times a week. So by no means was it a "fast and effective" method. the chunk of rock was about the size of 2 fists together. The rock was still "shedding" for awhile more. until I dumped the bucket out 'cause i needed it for something 'n tossed the rock in my garden.. lol.