Jestersix

is skimmer necessary to cure dry rocks & sand?

I have a small amount of pukani rock & some sand that came with it, it looks like it was used in an aquarium before and then left out to dry once they decided to call it quits so it's safe to assume there is plenty of dead dried out stuff in there therefore I decided I could use some more rock in my tank and my sand bed could benefit from a little more sand as I've lost some over time since I try to stir & siphon detritus off the surface whenever I change my water.

I've researched and read about the most effective ways to cure rock and it seems that plenty of sources strongly suggest the use of a protein skimmer, the tank I plan to use for curing this rock is my 10 gallon quarantine so I can't really put any normal skimmer in there and definitely don't have the money to throw into a serious skimmer for something temporary and so small, now do I have to have a skimmer to cure this rock? if so what can I use with this tank that can get the job done?

Thanks in advance for any input
 
NEED...no. Would it help? Sure. You could rinse and soak in ro or tap water a couple times first, then cure in 10 gal w salt water and a powerhead. No skimmer needed.
 
I figured it should work without a skimmer but wasn't sure, worst case scenario it takes forever for the parameters to stabilize, I could run a bio filter along with a small powerhead circulating the water.
how long do you think it'll take for the rock & sand to completely cure?
 
I'm sure you've rolled up your sleeves and scrubbed the rock down. :)

Have you considered sterilizing the new rock instead ? You can use hydrogen peroxide in plain water to do the trick, that way you will know you are not introducing any unwanted hitch hikers. The rocks will reseed and eventually get some coraline growth when added to your aquarium.
 
gimmito I doubt there will be hitch hikers but most likely lots of ammonia, the rocks look like they they've been dry for years, there is no fungus or anything indicating that the rocks had seen water any time recently. The shape of the rocks doesn't allow me to scrub much of the surface if I did it I might cover 20% of the surface, but I've never heard of hydrogen peroxide for sterilizing them I'm going to look into that...

JAR I was thinking of running the rock and sand through many cycles of tap water and let the chlorine in tap water handle things, but I suppose a little bit of bleach can speed up that process. Is it a good idea to expose the sand to bleach too?
 
Desiccation has most certainly already occurred, the rocks and sand look pure white as if they'd already been bleached, they have no smell of anything whatsoever... perhaps some very very good rinsing in tap water then dechlorinator soak and then curing
 
It's not a smell or look of the outside that matters with dry rock. It can be as white as white can be and still be loaded with organics and not even smell.
 
Are there any concerns to using bleach to sterilize the rock? Isn't it safer to use hydrogen peroxide or does it even matter? I guess the preferred cleansing method is dependent upon how soon you want to reuse the rock?
 
I bleached all my old live rock that was covered in Aptasia and compacted with phosphates. Let them soak for a week. Then rinsed several times with the hose. Then let them dry outside for another week. Then rinsed again............into some saltwater with a heater and strong power head. Every day for another week I took them out into a bucket of saltwater and vigorously rinsed / shook them. After a week I changed the water in the holding container and let them soak another week. Turned out very nice actually. Most of that rock is back in my display now.
 
I just hand rinsed the sand in hot tap water and wow all sorts of black gunk came out, looked a lot like what's left at the bottom of the bucket when you wash your car. Rinsed the rocks too and left everything in a 5 gal bucket to soak, I'll repeat this a few times, let it dry, stick it in RO/DI water, repeat that a few times, move into saltwater & run a power head, repeat that a few times over the course of a month or two and we'll see where that gets me.

Awesome advice from everyone, I appreciate the help :)
 
denzil said:
Are there any concerns to using bleach to sterilize the rock? Isn't it safer to use hydrogen peroxide or does it even matter? I guess the preferred cleansing method is dependent upon how soon you want to reuse the rock?

Denzil-if you do what Kris suggested you should be good to go.
 
HOLY COW, not that boiling rock had come up in this thread or anything but still relevant, check this out;

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/personal-experiences-with-palytoxin-poisoning-almost-killed-myself-wife-and-dogs

guy & his family almost die from boiling rock
 
HiFidelity said:
HOLY COW, not that boiling rock had come up in this thread or anything but still relevant, check this out;

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/personal-experiences-with-palytoxin-poisoning-almost-killed-myself-wife-and-dogs

guy & his family almost die from boiling rock

Search our forum, a local went through that and nearly killed his family IIRC
 
denzil said:
Are there any concerns to using bleach to sterilize the rock? Isn't it safer to use hydrogen peroxide or does it even matter? I guess the preferred cleansing method is dependent upon how soon you want to reuse the rock?

No concerns with bleaching as long as you employee a dechlor. Hydrogen peroxide is no where near as good as bleach for this purpose.
 
BAYMAC said:
denzil said:
Are there any concerns to using bleach to sterilize the rock? Isn't it safer to use hydrogen peroxide or does it even matter? I guess the preferred cleansing method is dependent upon how soon you want to reuse the rock?

No concerns with bleaching as long as you employee a dechlor. Hydrogen peroxide is no where near as good as bleach for this purpose.
Ah, good to know. I guess any dechlor out there is good enough? Is there a specific dechlor that you use or have used?
 
I have access to barrels of raw ingredients since we use a ton where I work, not to mention pallets of ClorAm-X, so I use what is available. Since you are not worried about a protein skimmer going nuts, any of them are fine, just stay away from the ones with all the extra junk for "fishes health", etc.
 
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