Dried out Corals

I just bought a fish tank and it came with some rock that use to be alive, corals he said was alive 2 years ago. I was wondering if they could be brought back alive or if they are a lost cause. I will post a pic and to me they seem worth trying to bring back alive. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!!

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Are you planning on putting them in a salt water tank? If so the yes but it will take time, and established live rock.

If they could be brought back I would consider starting up a saltwater tank. I have bought out 2 of them in a week. So I have alot of dried out pieces. Both have been tore down a couple of years. But these 2 pieces of coral are very cool

I brought some back when I still had a salt tank. You will just have to add new established live rock to seed the dead corals, and some fish not manny. Maby some clowns or demsals to let them aid in the cycling of the tank. You will see it start coming back. Its cool watching the changes in the dead coral as it comes back to life.

Cool how long did it take yours to come back?

I'd like pics of this.. can't get the links to work.

Second attempt at the pic

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https://i.servimg.com/u/f24/16/54/32/05/100_2812.jpg

Please use the second link in the above post. Not sure why the first is not working but the second worked for me. Let me know if it does not work for you....Thanks

yes, you can reseed the dry rock and it will become live again.
corals are animals and once they are dead they are dead, there's no bringing them back.
no more than you could bring a dead cat back to life. if they could be brought back don't you think reefers would be buying coral skeletons by the bucket loads rather than paying the price for live coral?

Thanks Cwhip, I was hoping but sounds like they are decorations then. They will look geat in with my African Chiclids too.

How do you go about reseeding the rock? this part is great because I have allot of rock.

take a rubber maid container or whatever you have handy to put the rock in
then mix up some salt mix with distilled water or RO/DI water to salinity 1.024
that would be 2 cups per 4 gallon bucket of water or buy enough premade saltwater to cover the rock at your LFS. then get a power head any old ph will do. it just needs to circulate, you dont need a heater this time of year. then go buy a small piece of live rock to put in with the dead rock this will spread and make the dead rock live again. you can get a cheap clip on light from home depot use a par38 sylvania flood bulb you can also throw some cheato and cap full of liquid calcium in there to jump start the coralline algae growth. then sit back and wait. I would do a 4 gallon water change once/twice a month. how many pounds of live rock are we talking about? if you make this rock live again and decide not to use it you can make your money back and then some by selling it as live rock in 6 months or so, also keep in mind you dont have to have the cheato and calcium but the cheato will have lots of good critters on it and help establish the rock faster same go's for calcium it will speed up coralline growth.

There is allot of rock. I got some out of 2 different tanks I have recently picked up. Both tanks came with salt and a large bag full of chemicals. But the the rock is in a tote about 18X24X16 and it is full.

Thanks for the advice, I may do this and sell it. Would give me back most of my money then. I can just affraid my G/F will keep the saltwater tank if I do this.

Alton S wrote:

There is allot of rock. I got some out of 2 different tanks I have recently picked up. Both tanks came with salt and a large bag full of chemicals. But the the rock is in a tote about 18X24X16 and it is full.

Thanks for the advice, I may do this and sell it. Would give me back most of my money then. I can just affraid my G/F will keep the saltwater tank if I do this.

I don't know what you paid for it but I do know if you take the time to bring it back to life I would sell it for 3.00 a pound so lets say you have 50lbs once its live again you could sell it for 150.00. lol don't be afraid setup up a saltwater tank! you'll be hooked:)

I had one a few years ago and it was running for almost 2 years. Had a Sally Lightfoot crab die and fell behind a rock where I could not see it. When I got home from work the entire tank was wiped out. Lost allot of fish. Now I am running 8 tanks full of African Chiclids, mostly Haps and some Peas. They keep me way more busy then I need.

Alton S wrote:

Thanks Cwhip, I was hoping but sounds like they are decorations then. They will look geat in with my African Chiclids too.

How do you go about reseeding the rock? this part is great because I have allot of rock.

Maybe I miss understood. When I said yes you can bring it back to life, I thought you was talking about bringing it back to life as live rock not as live coral. Dead coral is dead and gone but it dose make some nice live rock.

That is alright Lgsasquatch. Now I have to decide if I want to reactivate or sell as is. Still thinking the coral would look good in one of my African tanks. Will see what happens after I get the fish tanks arranged first.