# Old Saltwater Live Rock in Mbuna Tank?



## Malawi Mac (Aug 20, 2004)

I have in storage a couple of 5-gallon buckets of "live rock." By that, I mean rock that I purchased as live rock back when I had a saltwater aquarium many years ago. It' been sitting in our root cellar for at least 15 years. I would assume there is nothing "live" about it any more.

I'm setting up an additional Malawi mbuna community in a 75, and I'm contemplating using the live rock for my rockwork. It asthetically better than any other rock I have in storage.

Does anybody know any reason (from a fish health point of view) why I shouldn't do this? Tap water is hard and alkaline if that makes a difference.


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## prov356 (Sep 20, 2006)

After 15 years anything live should have long died and dried out, but I think I'd still test it by dropping it into a bucket of some sort and checking for ammonia. No other reason not to use old live rock in freshwater.

You're like me, I hang on to fish sutff forever too.  Never know when you might need it.


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## Lacey131 (Sep 26, 2010)

my tank is a salt converted cichlid. I kept my same live rock and same live sand in my 75. My live rock i pulled and placed in my garden tub for 3 days in fresh amquel and nova aqua treated water . Drained and refilled every 24 hours. This gave me time to drain , stir, settle , siphon, repeated 5x to get extra biologicals out. And my tank couldn't be happier with it. good luck and would like to see final pics. 
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak- ... 6835_n.jpg


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