Help! How Do You Revive Dead Live Rock?

[dabxchef]

I just got a great salt-water tank I beleive it is a 45 gallon corner-tank with a nice marineland aquatics wet-dry filter,a large( i don't know the series #) canister fluval and a skimmer i think it is also marineland brand i'm currently raising the sailinityof the water after i'll be adjusting ph and then ill focus on my proper bacteria levels.
I'am completly confident i can run a reef system but i don't really want to buy more live rock! The rock i got isstark white with no algae on it! I was told that i can revive the rock over time.With that said these are my questions:
1) Is it necassary to wait for this process to populate with corals and anomones?
2) Please descibe a method to revive the rocks.I don't think the coral will survive without it any way if I'm wrong do tell!
3) Is it just best to by new rock? I don't mind taking the scenic route on this i have the patience of Job. Hard work aint never hurt anybody!!!
thanx in advance!

 

[dorkfish]

Actually, acording to garf you could start a reef tank up with only aragocrete rocks(concrete with aragonite sand) and if you seed it with enough garf grunge (i'll give you a link) you can be adding hardy corals l9ke mushrooms,capnella and leathers the next day. The rock should revive itself almost.

You said your'e starting a reef? lots of research, I know about A fish without even asking the name (because of research). You said some stuff about anemones, either the worst coral thing for beginners or the best, lots of conflicting info however they will eat anything that fits in thier mouth.
Also any and all hard corals should be avoided for atleast a year after setting up any tank. garf says this, and they've been propagating corals for 13 years.

Garf:

http://www.garf.org/

 

[Crown Royal]

You "revive" live rock by simply keeping it in a heated and aearated environment. It can be in your tank if there's nothing else in it or in a rubbermaid tub.

You monitor your NH2, NO2 and NO3 levels accordingly.

What's the history of your live rock? Where did it come from and do you know if it's been out of salt water for any extended period of time?

Live rock is incredibly resilient and simply re-curing over a period of time will usually bring it back to life even if it's been sitting in an unheated bucket of salt water for several weeks (personal experience).

I've seen pictures of Garf Grunge. It appears to be live rock rubble. You can probably do your own "seeding" by simply buying a small amount of new live rock from your LFS and placing it in the same heated/aerated container as your current rock. The nitrifying bacteria and other critters will eventually make their way over to the original rock over time. The more cured rock you start out with, the faster the process will go. Smaller pieces or rubble will work more quickly as well because you can sprinkle it throughout the tank rather than just having a few big pieces in a concentrated area.

The same goes for "live" sand. Start with simple "dead" play sand and some live rock and eventually the good stuff from the rock will migrate into the sand.