Tumbleweed

Why bother with live rock then? Just get dry base rock, that's all you'll have after the acid dip after all.

Beacuse the Live rock I am getting is free. Or yes I would just be buying base rock

what would happen if you soaked the rock in a seperate container of salt water with a bottle or 2 of joe's juice or another less harmful substance, hopfully just killing off the aptasia.

I understand your frustrations. If you want it to be live rock, you have to treat the pests. If you want it to be base rock, nuke everything. Myself, I prefer live rock.

After some time the base rock will become live rock. Have you ever tried to cook live rock? Does that really work and kill off all pests yet keep the rock alive?

Yes, I've had liverock cooking in a trashcan in total darkness for years, actually. Occasionally I'll pull out a piece to use, but I never seem to put some infested stuff in the trashcan for whatever reason. That's how I had rock ready to go for the angled tank.

Yes, base rock can become live once again, but it can take 6 months or longer to be viably beneficial. Most people won't wait that long to add livestock, which could easily overload the system's biological filtration due to the rock not being ready to maintain it.

That is my concern about taking out live rock and putting in base rock, the lack of filtration in the tank. I was also thinking of taking base rock and seeding in a brute trash can for a couple of months before using it.

Yes, that's doable. If you want to seed it and light it for coralline, then there's no reason to use a trashcan. A quarantine tank or bin should be fine.

Well the rock I am getting is/was live rock. It has been sitting in a bin with water, but no circulation. I was thinking of maybe cooking the rock to try and kill off any algae or aptasia that might be on it.

Personally, I would just treat the rock for the pest. They have a lot of good creatures in live rock that will be good for ya tank.