in need of some advice

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saltwaternewbie22

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Feb 16, 2010
Messages
11
i have a 55g saltwater reef tank that has been set up now for about 4 months. i started with 35lbs of liverock, a 2 inch live sand bed, 2 pecular clowns blue leggeg hermit crabs, zebra hermit crabs, turbo snails, and cleaner shrimp. Since then i have added a yellow tang and a hippo tang. I recently wanted to purchase more live rock to add to my tank so i went to a site online where i paid 365.00 for 40lbs of live rock. i recieved the rock the next day but i dont really like the way it looks. there are lots of clams and corals on the rock, but they look kinda sickly to me. i mean i am new to this hobby so i dont know if this is normal or if i made a mistake in buying rock from these people. Can anyone give me a little advice? oh and my water parameters are all 0. nitrites, nitrates, and amonia, and my ph is 8.2. Can anyone help me :puppydogeyes:
 
Welcome to AA! :) :)

$9 bucks a pound for rock you don't like. Not good. You also have not made a good choice for fish additions. Both of those tangs prefer a larger tank. 6ft since they like swimming room. Check any on-line store or profile and it'll tell you they both need at least 125g tanks.

On that new rock, you need to put it in a salt water container and test for ammonia. Read up on the dif between cured vs uncured rock. If uncured, you will have a bad time if you add it to the main tank. Didja put it in the main already? And the fish too?

You should be thinking about cardinals, blennies, gobies, or much smaller fish than tangs in a 55g.

Good luck.
 
well the size of the tank im not worried about im about to move in a couple of months and im going to set up a 150g tank then, but i dont wanna set it up now and have to move it. and the rock was cured already when i got it. i just dont know whether to try and remove it and scrub all the stuff off, just leave it like that, or get rid of it and start over with what i had already.
 
well the size of the tank im not worried about im about to move in a couple of months and im going to set up a 150g tank then, but i dont wanna set it up now and have to move it. and the rock was cured already when i got it. i just dont know whether to try and remove it and scrub all the stuff off, just leave it like that, or get rid of it and start over with what i had already.

Whenever you receive mail order live rock, cured or uncured, there will be dead loss so it should be thrown in a rubbermaid bin for about a week with some fresh SW and allowed to sort of 'heal' itself. The time spent out of water will cause bacteria to die on the rock, thus creating an ammonia spike in your tank if you just drop it in there.

As for the lifeforms on the rocks, many people consider that to be great LR if it came with some corals attached to it. But if you really want to clean it off of the extra lifeforms, you can scrub them off and clean it up. About the only way to ruin LR is to expose it to copper based meds or boil it. If you boil it to clean it up, it is no longer live rock, it will then be base rock. After about a year it would be live again.

Edit: Here is a link to a great guide explaining how to clean and cure your LR.
http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/general.cfm?general_pagesid=59
 
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