preparing rocks for the tank

[irishjabba]

Hi guys,
I recently got some reef rocks from a buddy of mine...some are aragonite, some tufa, and some lava. They used to be in a reef tank, but the tank was torn down long ago and the rocks have been sitting in a garage collecting dust.
I want to use them for building up my rock base...putting them under my nicely growing live rock. Of course, I don't want to just dump them in. Any suggestions on cleaning them up to make them safe for the reef?

I washed them off, and they're sitting in a tub of freshwater with a powerhead for circulation.

any thoughts appreciated!

Thanks!
Patrick

[stang69]

Sounds like your doin the right thing. Imight let them breaw for a cpl days and then spray them off again I believe the tufta will be ok but I would not use the lava it may have some metals in it that wouldnt be a good thing.





HTH

Jeff

[Reefland]

I would dump the lava and stang mentions and just clean them off very well with freshwater. I would also make absolute certain that the rocks were not exposed to anything dangerous being in a garage; gasoline, bleach or anything like that.

Regards,
Scott Z.

[irishjabba]

I would dump the lava and stang mentions and just clean them off very well with freshwater. I would also make absolute certain that the rocks were not exposed to anything dangerous being in a garage; gasoline, bleach or anything like that.

Regards,
Scott Z.

Good points on both on not using the lava and checking about exposure to dangerous stuff. I think I'll opt on the side of caution and not use the lava rock. I checked on the storage of the rocks, and looks like they should be fine as they were kept with my buddies tank equipment out of harms way. I also took some good whiffs, and nothing smells like a dangerous chemical.
Do make doubly sure, I've been soaking them in freshwater for a little over a week now, as I figured maybe anything bad might leach out a bit (if there was anything).

One thing is that the rocks were covered with a small amount of dried out microalgae....any thoughts on if I should cure the rock for awhile longer to avoid adding any organics to the tank?