Live Rock

[Shino74]

Hi All,
I have purchased my 45g second hand and with it came loads of live rock that was in the tank for 2 and half years. I am coming to the stage where I put the rock into the tank and was wondering if i needed to do anything to the rock first. Dumb Question I know but i am a newbie!
Advice greatfully received
Steve

 

[Alaskan Reefer]

Research "cooking" live rock here -- lots of threads on it. May or may not be necessary depending on nutrient levels in the tank it's coming from.

Is the rock dry now? Fresh from the tank?

 

[Shino74]

Thanks for your reply. The rock is dry!

 

[JusJim]

This is kind of a question/comment, since I'm also learning about saltwater aquaria as well....but if the live rock has dried out then Is it not at this point dead rock?

Wouldn't everything that was in there be dead by now?

 

[MBuck]

[welcome]

I also have about 200lbs of dry rock and I will be using about 75lbs in my 125...it is not set-up yet...


I am going to put it in a large bucket of saltwater, swish it around real good to get any "stuff" off of it, and scrub it with a toothbrush where necessary.

I am then going to place it in my tank with another 50lbs of good live rock, and let it cycle....

This will probably take a few weeks, to a month, cuz I am buying uncured LR.

Once all the ammonia, nitrates, etc, are down, I will add my sand, wait a week or so, and start to add livestock...

The dry rock, or base rock will eventually become live, and covered with coraline, etc, but this will take months....in the mean time, it will also start to collect and grow the beneficial bacteria you need.. So even though it's not colorful, doesn't mean that it's not doing it's job....

But you must add some LR to it to seed it, and maybe a shrimp to help move the cycling process along.

A cup of live sand from your LFS or a fellow reefer would be a good idea too. I am not adding sand until I have finished cycling the tank, easier to get debris from the rock off a bare-bottom tank than one with sand...

I have another tank I will use some LS form to seed mine.

HTH!

 

[Alaskan Reefer]

If it's dry for a while, what's on there is dead.

I'd start it in a rubbermaid for a day with a powerhead, let it get good and wet, then do the "swish" thing or blast it all over with the powerhead. If it's clean (doesn't cloud up the water with detritus), scrub it with the toothbrush and into the tank.

Put it in the tank, add a few pieces of coraline encrusted LR from the LFS. It will take time to cure, monitor until ammonia and nitrite are zeroed.

If you were going to have sand, I'd add it at this point. I'd wait to make sure the LR didn't shed a bunch more crap while curing.

Basically the only problem you have is that you won't have much in the way of critters since you're only bringing in what comes from the LFS LR. If you see pods and worms scurrying around at this point, then great, just be very patient with stocking (beyond snails) to let their populations grow before the fish come in and decimate them. They're valuable members of your clean up crew so it's good to get them established. Some good LS or an order of online pods would jump start it.

 

[MCary]

Liverock that has dried is called "Rock".

Liverock is live because it has beneficial bacteria in it. Secondarily it can seed your tank with coralline algae and copepods. Liverock can also have hitchhikers but that is secondary to its purpose.

 

[tag]

another word of advice when seeding "dead" rock, try to stack your e live rock on top of the dead rock instead of the other way around or you'll kill a lot of your live rock.

 

[yogisfriend]

And please remember, any time someone advises to use a shrimp to cycle the tank, they mean a cocktail-type shrimp from the supermarket, not a live one. However, I was assured by moderators on this site that if you have live rock, the dead shrimp is totally unnecessary and may do nothing more than add toxins to your tank.

 

[sidd129]

How long has the live rock been dry for?

 

[Shino74]

Many thanks for all your replies! It has been dry now for about a month!