Sorry if this has been answered this allready. I got some base rock and I am assuming that it needs to be cleaned first? If so, what do I need to use.

Anyone know what this purple and green coating on this rock is?

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Looks like paint. Where did you get the rock?

sure does !! looks like the rock was painted to look like coraline and some green algea.

LFS had it listed form a manufacturer as "look alike" rock. Wouldnt painting the rock be fish suicide?

That depends on the paint used. i would clean it thoroughly with ro/di water if it was mine. I would probably also give it a good scrub and try to get the paint off. Soon enough it will be covered with real corraline or other algae. I regularly put base rock in my sump and wait for it to get some algae growing. Then I put it in the reef and replace with new base.

If you can maybe try boiling the rock. I am not sure why anyone would paint it.

Before spending too much time on this, I would first take a minute to consider:
what are the pros and cons to using it, potential risk vs potential gain, and what is it you hope to get from this rock?

>potential risk vs potential gain as for risk: maybe try to find out a bit more about what type of paint etc... Do you feel like you can get it all off? does it all look secure? do you feel like it will stay put ? and if not are you 100% confident it's safe for your inhabitants?
Gain: money? maybe it saved you some cost? esthetics? maybe it is exactly the piece you pictured in your system? (only you know these)

>what is it you hope to get from this rock? If you just plain love the shape and it's perfect for what you had in mind. as suggested above I'd soak it and try to clean it somehow. If it's biological filtration you're after, I'd question how effective it could ever be, even after cleaning the pours will still be plugged making it difficult to support and significant nitrifying bacteria or other beneficial organisms.

anyway....just a few thoughts from someone that's handled a fair amount of base rock :p
Good luck with it
Marc

Well, I went ahead and rensed it off with some water from the tank and scrubbed it a bit. I added it to the tank despite the odd appearence.

What I am planning to get from the rock is just simply 'a big rock.' I have only found two fish stores in my area and one of them does not have any base rock. The other one only has some small chunks for $1.85/lb and the big purple ones for $2.20/lb. So, until I can either find another fish store or until this one gets some more rocks in, I am stuck with this.

I thought about going the online method, but all I can find is ones that sell live rock, or base rock by the 50lb boxes.

Here's my tank so far, in case anyone is interested:

11/28/06
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12/24/06
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if you are looking for more, check out Marc's website. His company is the newest of our sponsors and there main product is base rock. you can get ahold of him in his sponsor forum here:
http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/marco-rocks/

that said, by looking at the rock, it does not look like base reef rock at all, maybe its me, but how pores is the rock, from the picture it doesn't look like it has any holes in it. it looks to me like a rock that would go in a FW tank... see without the holes like a real reef rock, it serves no purpose for filtration (a main reason for having LR or base rock)

Its pretty pourous. I dropped it in the tank and it bubbled air for about an hour. I figured the paint would have covered up the pores, but supprisingly it didnt.