Cycling question

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ratgrrl77

New member
Just got my first shipment on Monday. For future refrence Jaxport ( Jacksonville Fl airport) Sw airlines air frieght office is closed on Sundays ( the website says they are open) so my rock and sand sat till Mon when I went to pick it up.

Between the first night and tues AM I dumped the skimmer chamber half a dozen times( as it was about to overflow)
Oh and we lost power yesterday for 4 hours ( when it rains it pours)

Well I'm hoping the rock didn't start to die off because my ammonia spiked to 2ppm yesterday. I got very scared. Did 50% water change last night and added Cycle(R) ...ammonia still over 1ppm this AM so I did a 75-80%. Now reading 0.5ppm.

I have seen a few dead brittle stars and 2 dead baby cukes.

Did my rock die out on the loading dock of SW airlines? :(
 
Re: Cycling question

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7119482#post7119482 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ratgrrl77
Just got my first shipment on Monday. For future refrence Jaxport ( Jacksonville Fl airport) Sw airlines air frieght office is closed on Sundays ( the website says they are open) so my rock and sand sat till Mon when I went to pick it up.

Between the first night and tues AM I dumped the skimmer chamber half a dozen times( as it was about to overflow)
Oh and we lost power yesterday for 4 hours ( when it rains it pours)

Well I'm hoping the rock didn't start to die off because my ammonia spiked to 2ppm yesterday. I got very scared. Did 50% water change last night and added Cycle(R) ...ammonia still over 1ppm this AM so I did a 75-80%. Now reading 0.5ppm.

I have seen a few dead brittle stars and 2 dead baby cukes.

Did my rock die out on the loading dock of SW airlines? :(
Click to expand...

YUCK! :mixed:

that don't sound good!

what was the weather like saturday / sunday there??
if the box was left out in the sun or in a shed w/o air conditioning
it may have got to warm ++ sat to long and started to get "toxic"

if this was your "base rock" it's hard to say.... you may want to leave rich a message and see what he says; maby arrange to get some more "part one" rock after a good long cycle ??
-- giving it some time to see what's really dead and what makes it.
 
If it had a lot of sponge growth you may want to take the rock out and scrub it with a small toothbrush. Don't worry the sponge will come back it takes only a few cells to start growing again. Meanwhile the sponge material probably died and is poluting your tank really bad. I had to do the same thing with the second package I got a year ago. The airlines lost my rock and flew it to main and I had to pick it up the next morning. It was a 20 gallon package and one of the rock had a serious sponge dealth problem and my ammonia was off the chart. When I took the one piece of rock out that I suspected was causing this it stunk something fierce. It was a very deep sponge growth and I really had to scrub hard to get it cleaned off. Two days later ammonia went down to .50 ppm and I never had another problem. Sponges are very sensitive and will kill your rock if they are died, but will grow back.

Tom
 
I e-mailed Richard last night he advised me of the same thing. So I found to sponges that fell apart as soon as I touched them and several other sponges I scrubbed off as they stated to come off when I lightly went back and forth with the brush. I also performed a 40% water change afterwards. But my ammonia read 1ppm right now. I'm scared it will go up tonight as I sleep. Any other advise, bacteria additives to use ( I use cycle, but I will use something else if it is better). I found a jewel box clam though in my search for "death". I found him when he spit water in my face when I lifted his rock out of the tank.

When will I see the ammonia plumit?? I'm nervous. My last tank ( fowlr) was not this difficult. ARRGGG!!
 
Best thing you can do now is just keep up with your water changes and let the tank go thru its cycle. The more you remove the rocks from the tank to scrub, the more die off you will end up causing. IMO using additives and other stuff to shorten the cycle is just going to exacerbate the situation or cause other unpleasantness later on.

Patience is the key now. Just my 2 cents....
 
OK well this AM my ammonia was 3ppm and the largest of the rocks looked gray all over. SO i took it out to smell it...THE ENTIRE ROCK REEKED!!!! I removed it and placed it in a bucket with salt water and airation and then performed a 50% waterchange.
It is now after 7PM and my ammonia is at 3ppm still. What is going on??? Did my rock die..or is there something in the rock dying. I invested so much $$ and time in this I just Hate to see it wasted. The tube coral has started to lose it's orange color, the sea cukes and snails try to escape daily ( I presume to espape the toxic water). What can I do I don't want to perform water changes more than 50% because it's taking bacteria away with it . HELP!!!!
 
According to the instruction you are to change enough water to bring the ammonia down to less than 1 and this will allow the tank to cycle. You are going to need base rocks anyway so don't worry. MY problem is 1st part of the pkg looks so good that I would hate to put anything on top of them that would kill some of the living organism or will be blocking the light.

For me the first part of the pkg I've learned a lot from watching the cycle develop and ammonia going down to zero from peak in 2 days but I still have very low nitrite and nitrate and I'm on the 12 day now.
 
I would also try a different test kit just to confirm with what you have is correct. Just buy the ammonia kit from a different brand to test.
 
OH the one large rock is definatly dead...It smells like death. Richard told me to take out all the rock and do 100% water change and let the tank rest a week and then he will send out new rock. I saved 2 small pieces one had a jewel box clam and the other some barnicles and a few tube corals and I placed them in my mantis tank.
I placed all the other rock in some rubbermaid and I'm going to try and coax out all my hitchhikers. So far i rescued some porcelan crabs and a few brittle stars from the stinky rocks.


I blame all of this on the carge office for leaving my rocks outside on their dock for a whole day while they were closed.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7134665#post7134665 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ratgrrl77
OH the one large rock is definatly dead...It smells like death. Richard told me to take out all the rock and do 100% water change and let the tank rest a week and then he will send out new rock. I saved 2 small pieces one had a jewel box clam and the other some barnicles and a few tube corals and I placed them in my mantis tank.
I placed all the other rock in some rubbermaid and I'm going to try and coax out all my hitchhikers. So far i rescued some porcelan crabs and a few brittle stars from the stinky rocks.


I blame all of this on the carge office for leaving my rocks outside on their dock for a whole day while they were closed.
Click to expand...

Yeah sounds like they nuked the rock from what you have said...

sucks to have that happen for a first time .... not normal for the way rich and tbs handle packing and shipping the rock to have such death.

BTW: if in that rock you had any of certain criteerrs they can take down a whole tank when they die.
for example a "sea apple" -- a kind of cuke that when stressed or killed can release very toxic stuff.
some corals and sponges can also nuke a closed system that way.
 
Yea Richard and TBS are awesome ! He would never have sent it if he'd known they were closed. We did n't know either until I called to see when It would arrive and I got a recording saying they were closed on Sunday.
It really sucks becasue even though these were my base rocks....they were really pretty.
 
Well it looks like I'm now having a similar situation.

The 2nd half of my package was shipped out this morning from Tampa and expected to arrive here at 1PM. I checked Southwest Airlines online and it said they were on flight #250 and so I leave for the airport (an hour drive) so I could be ahead of the game and be there right when the plane lands just like the first time.

Well after sitting at Southwest Air Cargo for over 2 1/2 hrs. they finally figure out it was never on the plane and must have gotten bumped off the flight because it was sent as "general freight" which has lowest priority, and the Tampa terminal was now closed so they could not confirm what exactly happened. They also then say it could arrive sometime tomorrow or more likely on monday afternoon. I was so mad and asked how they could just "bump" boxes that say Live Tropical Fish and leave them sitting in some warehouse somewhere..... and after screaming at them for 15 minutes I finally walked out with my blood boiling. I really hate Southwest Air Cargo, grrrrrrrr.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7133340#post7133340 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ratgrrl77
OK well this AM my ammonia was 3ppm and the largest of the rocks looked gray all over. SO i took it out to smell it...THE ENTIRE ROCK REEKED!!!! I removed it and placed it in a bucket with salt water and airation and then performed a 50% waterchange.
It is now after 7PM and my ammonia is at 3ppm still. What is going on??? Did my rock die..or is there something in the rock dying. I invested so much $$ and time in this I just Hate to see it wasted. The tube coral has started to lose it's orange color, the sea cukes and snails try to escape daily ( I presume to espape the toxic water). What can I do I don't want to perform water changes more than 50% because it's taking bacteria away with it . HELP!!!!
Click to expand...


Your rock needs to be cured, which is totally different process than you are trying to do. You need a rubbermade tub equal in gallons to the lbs of rock you have, a really good skimmer (that can be put in a sump) and tons of water movement. At first you will skim so much with your skimmer you will feel like you are emptying it every hour. You need to literally pull all the dead stuff off the rock with water circulation and skimming. This will save all the important things in your rock.

Here is a great site to look at and the quote is exactly right " the solution to polution is dilution". Turn down your speakers though because the music is kind of loud. Your rock is not dead just needs a little help to get it back on track. Good luck!!!

http://www.livestockusa.org/CURING.html
 
"Well after sitting at Southwest Air Cargo for over 2 1/2 hrs. they finally figure out it was never on the plane and must have gotten bumped off the flight because it was sent as "general freight" which has lowest priority, and the Tampa terminal was now closed so they could not confirm what exactly happened. They also then say it could arrive sometime tomorrow or more likely on monday afternoon. I was so mad and asked how they could just "bump" boxes that say Live Tropical Fish and leave them sitting in some warehouse somewhere..... and after screaming at them for 15 minutes I finally walked out with my blood boiling. I really hate Southwest Air Cargo, grrrrrrrr."


Yea It sucks that's exactly how I feel.. I says LIVE FISH... Umm hello that a LIVE animal in that box!!! I wonder if it can be upgraded to something higher that "general" freight. I'm going to look into it.

Kepping my fingers crossed for you. Le tus know if they arrive ok.
 
<<< Yea It sucks that's exactly how I feel.. I says LIVE FISH... Umm hello that a LIVE animal in that box!!! I wonder if it can be upgraded to something higher that "general" freight. I'm going to look into it.

Kepping my fingers crossed for you. Le tus know if they arrive ok. >>>


The boxes finally came in late last night and everything looked fine. I still don't like Southwest though.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7139571#post7139571 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tspfish
Your rock needs to be cured, which is totally different process than you are trying to do.
Click to expand...


Live Rock from TBS does not need curing...
 
FWIW, the people at my southwest terminal were great - My part2 shipment had to stay overnight because I didn't know what day it was coming in, they took great care of it, and kept it in a warm (but not HOT, they said) place overnight - I had a small ammonia spike, but a few days of 10-20% water changes got rid of it, and all my life seems fine. it's a shame to hear your bad exeriences, but I wanted to let you know that not all terminals are bad.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7148251#post7148251 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RunnerFL
Live Rock from TBS does not need curing...
Click to expand...

TBS live rock does not need curing because it is very fresh rock and comes to you overnight. When you get rock that is not fresh because it sat around for a while or as in the case here, sat at an airport cargo bay it needs to be cured. When this happend a lot of organizims died and poluted other organizms so you have to bring it back. The only good thing in this case is that it was in water still, so the bacteria on the rock was probably still alive. All curing does is helps bring the rock back to life in a more favorable environment when you have alot of dealth.

You are right TBS rock normally does not need curing!!!!
 
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