what to remove from live rock?
 

Just finished reading an article on www.liveaquaria.com regarding how to clean/cure live rock. One part mentioned putting all the live rock in salt water with a gravity of 1.035-1.040 for a minute to take out unwanted pests like bristle worms, mantis shrimps and crabs. I just want to make sure that these are really things I want to take out. Furthermore, what should I put back in?

If you could also provide pics or links of pics of bristle worms, that'll be great. I have no idea what they are.

I've never dipped any new rock to get anything out, but this link might give you an idea of what to keep.

http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/index.html

Re: what to remove from live rock?
 

Here are 2 pics. Enjoy:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...ms+and+picture

Let's see people eat these on Fear Factor. :lol: :biggrin: Imagine a 12" worm with bristles crawling around in your stomach.

what do you guys do when you buy new live rock?

Oh my god! that one pic with all the worms!!!! dear lord!~

well what i do if the rock is cured is, toss it into my tank. If it isn't then i set up a rubbermad tank for it and cure it there with skimmer on it.

Yup, that's about it.

So what does people prefer to purchase when setting up a tank? cured or uncured? Do you gets a lot more 'life' from uncured that is lost when its cured by . . .whoever. (crabs, snails, worms???)

Wilty, given the choice, I would cure my own. If you're just starting up, this is easy. You have more control over lighting and water changes and I believe this increases the amount of life to survive. It's also a bit cheaper, but remember salt water costs money to cure it with, so savings might not be realized.
If you're more the wash and wear type, buy cured and away you go!!

Why bother manually curing rock if it's going into a new/uncycled tank? Why not just throw it in.

I was thinking this time round I'd cure my own. Curious what the going thought was

I think next time I will boil all my rock befor it goes into a tank. no unwanted algae that way.

Steve

I DID THAT TO A COUPLE ROCKS TO GET RID OF GLASS (ops caps) anemones. I regrett it since the rock is now bleached white and it'll be months and month before it returns. In future I'm just treat the rock.

Steve, to be fair, I don't think you'd have that problem if you bought "new" rock. Buying from an existing setup increases the chance of problem algae because the rocks have been in nutrient rich water AND the owner may have added some pretty green leafy stuff at some point. I'm not sure I've heard of caulerpa problems on fresh rock.

Steve can't be serious. Maybe he's recalling this recent discussion:

http://www.canreef.com/phpBB2/viewto...445&highlight=

um ya I can, the algae problems I am having have tankin me to the point whare I am concidering how I can boil my rock but save the pods and worms.

for the record I didn't have algae problems untill I bought some new rock. the old rock I had was algaeless :mrgreen: but 1 month after I added some "new" rock I developed razor calurpa and then Grape.

I don't recomend you spend a lot of money on rock then boil it, I was kinda joking, but that is what I am faced with doing now. If my attemps at cleaning it when I move fail.

Steve

While we're on the topic of algae:

-Does anyone know anything that will eat Sargassum?

-I'm seriously considering removing all my caulerpa from my fuge and just using halimeda. Do you guys think this is a fairly intelligent idea, or is the nutrient export going to be minimal this way?

Why do you want something to eat sargassum? Why not just prune it? Seems to me I don't have sargassum anymore, apparently I have pruned it out of existence in my tank. :frown: If only I could prune the grape caulerpa out of existence. That stuff is insidious. I don't mind the sargassum actually. It reminds me of the "big sargassum" forests you see out on the west coast and down to California and all that. But the caulerpa .... if I had the space I'd get a foxface because supposedly they'll eat caulerpa indiscrimately. Eating caulerpa seems beneath my tang somehow. He won't touch the stuff. Sigh.

I have a fish that loves the stuff. I can't keep Sargassum in my tank for more than a week.

fox face doesent work :rolleyes: so far I have bought both a defective yellow tang and a defective fox face.

mind you I am not si sure that they will eat the already established stuff so much as maybe the brand new growth. I picked the heck out of my grape calurpa and I have not had any new stuff reapear in a month. as for the razor, it isn't comming back as fast but there was a lot of area's I couldn't pic while the rock was in the tank. So maybe they are keeping new growth at bay.

I will say that the two emerald crabs I put in 3 weeks ago did a hell of a job on the bubble algae.. no little ones left.. now I just have to remove all the big ones.

Steve

Seems nobody here takes out any hitchhikers, so i guess I'll do the same when the time comes. But aren't mantis shrimps dangerous to your tank inhabitants?

You'll have to get your rock firsst then figure out if you have any hitchhikers. They aren't all bad.

Mantis can make things dissapear, yes. :lol:

Dekay, if you find amantis, by all means remove it. But if you're just setting up, you'll have a relatively easy time catching it. Traps work pretty good too. I wouldn't risk killing all the good things by dipping it in anything.

Poor Steve still with his caulerpa. Been there man and it's not pretty. :neutral:

My tank was strewed with grape so I got a sailfin tang off of Lee. Lee bought the tang to clean his tank out (he watched it eat calerpa before buying it).... I guess he had to much in his tank and it got sick of it or he liked the prepared food he was giving him better cause his wasn't eating his caulerpa anymore.. well wouldnt you know it the thing cleared my tank of it in a couple weeks. Want to borrow him? :lol:

traps?? what traps?

Mantis traps... they are used to catch mantis'. Go figure, eh?!?!

Smart***!!

A modified pop bottle can be used as a trap to catch mantis (and other shrimp). If you find a mantis, we can show you the trap.

Okay, so brad gave you the "proper" answer. Thanks brad :razz: