Old "live" rock..

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diamondgoby

I've set my 3.5g pico back up yesterday and began its cycle. i started with 5lb liverock and 5lb of carribean sand. i had a question regarding an old piece of live rock.. my girlfriend found a piece of rock, about 3 inches long, at a beach in the carribean about 10 years ago. she would like to put it in the tank. i'm just wondering if there will be any ill effects to this? its got some old coraline growth on it from years back, but of course it has not seen water in some time. any adverse effect to putting it in a cycling tank with live rock?
 
For mostly decorations, I have thrown pieces of pretrified corals, sponges, shells, sand dollars and other assorted items I have collected from various beaches thoughout the years. All I did was rinse it in cold tap water and arranged it in the tank. You will probably be ok.
 
jnmarshall, did you have any issues with algae growth after putting in the old decorations? i had a hug dead coral sitting in my attic for probably 15 years that my dad and I decided to put into his 75 for some cool shelving pieces. all we did was rinse it off. after adding them to the tank we started growing algae like crazy (starting on the old coral) and spreading throughout the tank. i don't know 100% that it was the old skeleton or what but i would recommend giving it a more thorough cleaning like a good soak in some vinegar at least
 
@diabeetus wrote:
jnmarshall said:
Just some discolorations of green, brown, red, etc... Nothing hairy or anything nasty. Some of the pieces look like the rocks in color now. A few have corals growing in and on and it looks REALLY cool!

I'll take a pic of a couple of pieces and post them in this thread in the next day.
Click to expand...
 
Below are some of the stuff I've added.
Petrified (Calcified) coral from Cozumel with two kinds of soft corals now growing.
[attachment=1]IMG_0188.JPG[/attachment]

Sand Dollar with red, brown and green algea
[attachment=2]IMG_0189.JPG[/attachment]

Sea Shell (Conch?) With algea
[attachment=0]IMG_0190.JPG[/attachment]
 
Some kind of sponge or other petrified or calcified coral from the carribean. I recently flipped it over so the topside now shows the original white. The other bottom side looks like the sand dollar.
[attachment=0]IMG_0192.JPG[/attachment]
 
Depending on how big the dry rock is, you might want to err on the safe side and soak it for at least a week in RO/DI water. Remember, it is not just what you can see on the surface...there could have been large clams and what-not embedded inside that can still affect your water parameters. At the end of the week, test the water for ammonia, and nitrite/nitrates. If you have anything at all, keep it in the water and cycle it completely before adding to your tank. Another alternative is to give it an acid bath to help disolve off the organic matter.
 
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