live rock in freshwatwer tank

[scuba cam]

hello fellow reefers, this my first thread so please forgive me I am a bare novice to your site and the sw hobby. my brother recently gave me his 135 gallon reef tank that has been up and running in my house for 3 months. water perameters are ph 8.3 nitrites 0 ammonia 0 calcium 480 kh 9 nitrates high with slight cyannobacteria outbreak. my question is, can I put liverock that has been in a freshwater tank for years in my reef system safley?will the rock come back to life eventualy?

[Scuba Oz]

I would clean it really good so you dont introduce and bad stuff into the saltwater.

yes, it will become live again in a few months in an established tank

[scuba cam]

so what do you mean by clean like mabye I should use a powerwasher?

[aujosh84]

Most likely the live rock is now dead rock, or what some people call base rock. Any dead live rock can be placed into an established aquarium and it will be "seeded" by the other rock and over time once again become "live" live rock. Just be sure that you haven't used any copper based medications in the freshwater tank (i think that most ich meds are copper based). If you have, i probably wouldn't risk it.

[scuba cam]

thanks for the input aujosh84. I just asked the person that I got the rock from if he ever had ich and he said yes but he also assured me that he had never used any copper based treatments in the tank or on the rock.

[MartinH]

Can someone give this fella a hearty "welcome to Reef Central" banner???

Congrats on your tank. Nice to be given a nice size tank, my family is not that nice (also not reefers!).

I agree with the above, you need to clean it off really well. I have heard that using a scrub brush or toothbrush works well. Use fresh saltwater to rinse it; scrub and rinse until nothing comes out. Use a powerhead to blow debris out of the pores a crevices.

One word..if they is cyano in the tank now, it may be because there are high nutrients in the water, which will increase when you add this rock to the tank. Just clean it as well as you can.

[scottfarcuz]

<img src="/images/welcome.gif" width="500" height="62"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central</b></i></big></big>

I would cure it like you would fresh live rock. I dont know if the freshwater bacteria dying off would cause problems with your reef tanks chemistry, but it is a chance I wouldnt want to take. I guess you could also let it dry out for a few weeks if storing it in a tub or something for awhile isnt possible.

[scuba cam]

Yes, I finely found my thread,man I need some practice with this site,and I will tell you now reef central has made my life. I am getting misty eyed right now thinking about it.Thank you all for feedback and solid advice. As for the liverock I have already put it in my system, so please pray for me. However, I did srcrub the first rock with a toothbrush and left it in a 5 gal bucket full of waterchange wastewater for about 24 hours(big rock) the second rock is still soaking in sw. Reefcentral rocks!!!!!!!

[scuba cam]

By the way so far so good on the system. And by the way thank you Martin 8 for the Hearty Welcome To Reef Central Suggestion,And thank you too scottfarcuz