Eating My LR?

KeMo · #1 08-31-2010, 09:38 PM

Ok so first off the tank is a 29 gal running for 5-6 months. Rest of tank info at signature. So all the LR i got was from the same store. Bought same time.
After about 2-3 weeks or getting the tank running I noticed to holes in the side of my biggest and nicest piece . The holes looked like some one took a drill and made two holes side by side about the size of a dime. Their is about 2 mm in between the two holes. So I put my hand in to investigate and right when I touched the part in between it fell to dust. The hole area around it just started to fall apart and go deeper into the rock. It went in farther then i wanted to stick my finger

. So I left it and thought maybe it was the sand that did not settle when i switched from crushed coral to LS.
Fastforward to know. I have since noticed more holes in my rock and it appears that it is moving or their are more then one. 4 rocks over more holes the same size . Also during normal weekly water change and tank up keep I picked up the rock that originally had the problem and when I did sand just started to poor out of the rock from the bottom out of a hole. I know its not the sand from the bed as this sand is like dust and always has a much darker tinge.
First off I know its not a mantis as the tank has been up 5-6 months and never once have herd any clicking sound. Its not a rock urchin as I since have added one and he just skims the top of the rock. Plus the holes are way to deep and it was their before him. I am getting two the point were I am dosing and want to add my corals but I am scared as If this thing eats rock like that it will prob make short work of them.
I have no idea what it is but i know its not that big as I always look into the tank when lights are out and never see anything out of the normal.
I cant afford to go out and just buy 40 more lbs of LR. Plus I dont trust that place for good LR any more (BigAls Young&Steels) . Their is live stock know in the tank and I dont want to recycle with new LR as their is no were to get rock that is 100& cycled that I know of other then waiting on a used tank. Also My rock has alot of iso,cope,and amphipods . I kinda dont wanna get rid of them but what do I do? any ideas or help at what this could be or what to do would be a great great help.I would re cure the rock piece by piece but how do I know its just not moving from them when I do that.
Thanks again Everyone.

lastlight · #2 08-31-2010, 09:46 PM

I always notice new pieces of rubble and rock bits on my sandbed. Sorta like the rock disintegrates on its own when brought to life again. Not sure about actually holes but I'm curious what others might say.

reeferious · #3 08-31-2010, 10:14 PM

don't waste money buying more rocks. just go buy bunch of 2 liter club sodas fill bucket up and dump those rocks in. soak rocks for however long until those things abandon rocks. don't worry about killing much of anything inside rock cause you wont.

hillegom · #4 08-31-2010, 10:15 PM

Tagging along to find the outcome

KeMo · #5 08-31-2010, 10:19 PM

Is that going to kill everything in the rock ? What about some of the worms i want to keep ? After killing whats in it how do I get the pod population back up ? Will this really kill them ? What about the coraline on the rocks ?
How long do I put the rock in the soda for. ?

KeMo · #6 08-31-2010, 10:22 PM

Killing the things in the rocks , wont this cause another cycle on them ? dead things bring ammonia and what not ? I have herd things will get out of the rock but what about stuff that might stay inside and die?
I dont want another cycle .

daniella3d · #7 08-31-2010, 10:33 PM

I don't think anything is eating your rock. Probably a few spots on it or the whole rock is friable and just decompose naturaly. If you toutched it and it fell apart, it is probably that it was on it's way to dissolve.

Why is it dissolving? not sure. It could be too porous or maybe just calcium dissolving?

I never seen rock eaters, does that even exist? I think you just have bad rock that are dissolving.

If you dip your rocks it will kill the good live on it.

Here some possible explanation:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume.../live_rock.htm

Quote:

Originally Posted by KeMo

Ok so first off the tank is a 29 gal running for 5-6 months. Rest of tank info at signature. So all the LR i got was from the same store. Bought same time.
After about 2-3 weeks or getting the tank running I noticed to holes in the side of my biggest and nicest piece . The holes looked like some one took a drill and made two holes side by side about the size of a dime. Their is about 2 mm in between the two holes. So I put my hand in to investigate and right when I touched the part in between it fell to dust. The hole area around it just started to fall apart and go deeper into the rock. It went in farther then i wanted to stick my finger

. So I left it and thought maybe it was the sand that did not settle when i switched from crushed coral to LS.
Fastforward to know. I have since noticed more holes in my rock and it appears that it is moving or their are more then one. 4 rocks over more holes the same size . Also during normal weekly water change and tank up keep I picked up the rock that originally had the problem and when I did sand just started to poor out of the rock from the bottom out of a hole. I know its not the sand from the bed as this sand is like dust and always has a much darker tinge.
First off I know its not a mantis as the tank has been up 5-6 months and never once have herd any clicking sound. Its not a rock urchin as I since have added one and he just skims the top of the rock. Plus the holes are way to deep and it was their before him. I am getting two the point were I am dosing and want to add my corals but I am scared as If this thing eats rock like that it will prob make short work of them.
I have no idea what it is but i know its not that big as I always look into the tank when lights are out and never see anything out of the normal.
I cant afford to go out and just buy 40 more lbs of LR. Plus I dont trust that place for good LR any more (BigAls Young&Steels) . Their is live stock know in the tank and I dont want to recycle with new LR as their is no were to get rock that is 100& cycled that I know of other then waiting on a used tank. Also My rock has alot of iso,cope,and amphipods . I kinda dont wanna get rid of them but what do I do? any ideas or help at what this could be or what to do would be a great great help.I would re cure the rock piece by piece but how do I know its just not moving from them when I do that.
Thanks again Everyone.

KeMo · #8 08-31-2010, 11:08 PM

I understand what your saying but Like I said before and Ill say it again the holes are the same size. If the rock was falling apart it would not fall apart in dime size holes that are so perfect it looks like its drilled , come on now.
Im shure that their is something in it. 100%. Some of the holes are in spots were the rock was crusted hard as Sh-t .

lastlight · #9 08-31-2010, 11:12 PM

Maybe this rock was drilled at one point. Sand filled those spots and became solid/fused. Now for whatever reason it's just falling out? Dunno.

reeferious · #10 08-31-2010, 11:19 PM

to ease up your anxiety about soaking rocks in club soda just make sure soda is room temperature and that you're not soaking rocks overnite, 5 minute soaking at a time will cause most undesirables to crawl out of rocks with minimal harms to most creepy crawlies inside rocks. replace rocks into tank and repeat soaking process next day or two should enable you to find out what's drilling those holes in your rocks. i've done this procedure a few times to flush out a few mantis shrimps, some 12 to 18 inches long worms and even a few stubborn hairy crabs and yes these are still full of life living in my refugium.