Removing rock

[annietye]

I have about 25# of rock in a new 30g tank, I had several pounds of base rock and used 10# live rock that I got locally, unfortunately the live rock is pretty poor quality. I just ordered 15#of live rock from Tampa Bay Saltwater to replace a bunch of the stuff I have now.

My problem is that I don't want to slowly kill the little bit of life on the local live rock by removing the rock and letting it dry out. I don't have a sump hooked up to the tank, but I use a 35g Brute trashcan to make saltwater. I am planning to turn the trashcan into a sump, so can I put the rock in there? Of course I would get a new trashcan for mixing the saltwater.

There is no light over the water, but I could rig up a cheap-o fluorescent fixture. It will be at least 3 weeks before the trashcan will be hooked up to the tank as a sump.

Another related question is that there is quite a bit of algae and cyanobacteria on the rock. If there is no filtration on the trashcan and very little lighting, will the algae just die and foul the water?

 

[McCrary]

So, the live rock in the tank has the cyano and the algae on it? Do you have any coral in the tank? Cyano and algaes are caused by poor water quality, nitrate and phosphate being large contributors. Is the rock that you are buying online already cured? If it isn't, expect it to be covered in lots of stuff and it will take a little while for it to cook and be able to be added to the tank without shooting the ammonia through the roof. Even the rock that is cooked will shoot up the ammonia, as its wrapped in newspaper and will have some die off when it gets to your tank. Water changes will be needed when cooking the rock, an actinic VHO/T5 light will keep the coralline algae on the rock. A cheap flourescent fixture will probably not be good at keeping the rock full of color. But if the rock in the tank has a little coralline algae on it, then the rock you add will grow coralline algae on it because the coralline will spread.

 

[annietye]

The tank is still cycling, it's only got 4 snails and a shrimp in it. Nitrates are 5ppm and ammonia and nitrites are generally zero. I do a 10% water change with RO/DI water generally every day. PO4 is zero.

The rock I ordered is from Tampa Bay Saltwater, which I personally have never seen but lots of people on Reef Central have said good things about it. It comes from Florida (legally harvested from a man-made reef put there several years ago to help offset the collecting taking place elsewhere) and is transported and shipped in saltwater, not wrapped in newspaper. Because there should only be a fraction of the die-off as, say, Carribean rock might have I am not expecting a problem putting it right into the tank.

There is no coralline algae on the LFS live rock, despite the fact that it has been in the tank for over a month and calcium levels are consistently at 380-400.

The only real life I have seen from the LFS rock are tiny grey shrimp, and I don't want to kill them by removing them from the tank. Will they do well if I move them to the future sump? Or is there a way to collect them from the rock?

 

[CruzinKim]

Don't do any water changes on your tank while cycling, wait until the cycle finishes, then do a massive water change to bring the nitrates down to where you want it to be. I good skimmer on the tank would help remove the die off and DOCs.