# Never break apart live rock!



## littletnklvr (Nov 1, 2010)

Never break apart live rock people at least not in the tank!!! It's not always all rock, I broke a piece of rock into 3 pieces and very glad I did it in a bucket instead of the tank, inside was all wood and destroyed the water in the bucket but that water was from my tank so lost a lot of water( I only have a 20Long ) that water was almost black! So all the life on that rock including some coral and mini brittle stars and who knows what else all gone! Dumped it all wish I took pics.


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

Wood???

I've never heard that before. Are you sure it was rock? Maybe it was some kind of petrified wood?

In any case, it's still just organic material, I can't imagine it would do any harm aside from nutrient issues.


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## littletnklvr (Nov 1, 2010)

solarz said:


> Wood???
> 
> I've never heard that before. Are you sure it was rock? Maybe it was some kind of petrified wood?
> 
> In any case, it's still just organic material, I can't imagine it would do any harm aside from nutrient issues.


 The long skinny piece with the Xenia on it, some of the piece is the big chunk to the right on the sand bed, the left side at the end is just sitting on a smaller piece, the wood was inside the long skinny part. Forgot to mention it smelled real bad, stunk up the whole apt!


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

Wood should not stink, even badly decomposed. How could you tell it was wood?

As you know, live rock serves as a biological filter, and the way it denitrifies is by inducing anaerobic reactions deep inside the rock. Anaerobic reactions produce sulfur, which stinks.

I'm thinking the stink comes from the fact that you broke the live rock, exposing anaerobic bacteria to the air. This would be similar to stirring up a deep sandbed.

I'm just not sure how you'd find something that looks or feels like wood inside the rock. Where did you get the rock anyway?


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## littletnklvr (Nov 1, 2010)

Someone on here in miss was selling some rock from their sump a couple of months ago.


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## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*Live rock*

I am sure if u had no idea what was inside the rick that the person who sold it to u had no idea as well
The good thing is u didn't break it in display tank or have it break in your tank ...


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

tom g said:


> I am sure if u had no idea what was inside the rick that the person who sold it to u had no idea as well
> The good thing is u didn't break it in display tank or have it break in your tank ...


Yeah, it's probably not a good idea to break live rocks in your tank...

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