Old live rock

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sidneyfirepm

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Feb 12, 2011
Messages
35
Location
Sidney, NE
I have about 40 lbs. of live rock, well its not to lively but i would like to make it lively again, can someone tell how to go about this.

Thanks
 
By not too lively do you mean it has been out of water for an extended period of time, thereby killing all of the bacteria? I am kind of confused what you are asking about, if it has been out of water and is now essentially just rocks, then you should just treat it like non cured rock that you bought at the store.
 
By not too lively do you mean it has been out of water for an extended period of time, thereby killing all of the bacteria? I am kind of confused what you are asking about, if it has been out of water and is now essentially just rocks, then you should just treat it like non cured rock that you bought at the store.

SO no getting it live again and yes out of water for about 4 mos. and no way to recure it
 
You have to put it in a saltwater tank then keep it in there while the tank is running and introduce a live piece from ur local fish store and with time they will get the essential bacteria they need to be considered "live"
 
You have to put it in a saltwater tank then keep it in there while the tank is running and introduce a live piece from ur local fish store and with time they will get the essential bacteria they need to be considered "live"

So i can get a big tub of salt water put a heater and a piece of live rock and a power head and 10 to 15 pieces of rock in it and maybe in 30 days or so it well be come live rock again
 
yes you can do that, probably be more like 6-8 weeks just keep testing your nitrites.


cool i have a small shed all wired up and nitrites is all i have to test for and one more thing i have a 55 gal salt i have 7 fish 1 shimp 4 crabs and all my test are good but i have a bad case if dimtoms i have been doing 20 gal wc every 4 days and on the next day its right back howdo i stop it
 
what are your levels of Nitrates and Phosphates? If you have diatoms you have them even if you cant get a reading on them. They can take them up faster than you can test for them. You need to find the source of nitrates and phosphates. There are several threads on here about them and reducing them. I have a 55g aswell and had Nitrates at 160ppm and did 50% water changes every 2 days till they dropped to about 20 before finally getting them to 0 only to have them crep back up recently to 10ppm and they are coming back down again
 
what are your levels of Nitrates and Phosphates? If you have diatoms you have them even if you cant get a reading on them. They can take them up faster than you can test for them. You need to find the source of nitrates and phosphates. There are several threads on here about them and reducing them. I have a 55g aswell and had Nitrates at 160ppm and did 50% water changes every 2 days till they dropped to about 20 before finally getting them to 0 only to have them crep back up recently to 10ppm and they are coming back down again

just did test for nitrates and its 0
 
Ur going to have low nitrates even when u have diatoms because they actualy feed off nitrates and phosfates I had a huge diatoms problem I thought it would never go away because I had a big problem with my diatoms.. I have a 125 gallon and about 130 lbs of live rock... I have a couple questions... what lighting are u using and when did u change the bulbs last? What sea salt do u use? Did u know some sea salt believe it or not have phosfates.. what do u have for clean up crew? One of the most important things is if u use ro water or do u use tap water? I filled my tank with tap water and that was one of my bigest mistakes.. I started using ro water changed my bulbs and changed my sea salt and added a clean up crew.. so please answer those questions so I can further assist u.. hope this helps..
 
The light came with the tank its a CurrentUSA 65 watt half is 460nm half 10k not sure on light bulb replacement and is that a good light ? salt is Instant Ocean,clean crew is 4 blue leg crabs 2 emerald crabs and a sand sifting star and yes im useing tap water with Prime added, now on that should or would it be better to use culligan water? with the Prime i test it and all levels are 0s
 
Id us ro so yea do urself a big favor and plz switch to the culligan water it will save u a lot of trouble.. I have a 125 gallon and my biggest mistake that I regret was filling it with tap.. and about the light the average rule that is debated is 1-2 watts per gallon... if it came with the tank as in its stock u should upgrade when u can to halide or compact fluorescents .... the bulbs u should change if u can to 10,000 k and blue actinics.. but that's totally ur choice...Also something to consider is changing ur sea salt... I had instant ocean but changed it after I found out it carried phosfates.. but the salt doesn't really matter... u got a good clean up crew but if I were u is add some more... especially some red legged hermits... they do a fantastic job and they're like .90 cents each... just be safer and please change to ro water! I'm trying to save u from the biggest mistake I made!/:
 
Id us ro so yea do urself a big favor and plz switch to the culligan water it will save u a lot of trouble.. I have a 125 gallon and my biggest mistake that I regret was filling it with tap.. the light is beyond good if its 64 watts... the average rule that is debated is 2-3 watts per gallon so that's beyond what u need so that's gud.. is personally go with the leds because it will save u money on electricity, and money on bulbs.. if they had a big enough led fixture that ddnt cost a fortune for a 125 gallon id definatly go wit it...

Ok ill do a 20 gal wc sat. with culligan water i will change filters to and yes the lights are 64 watts its marked right on it. So after the 20 gal wc how long before i do another wc and my salt is ok, oh and on the light they are compact lights 21.25 long and it has a blue and white as a set
 
The light fixture is "ok" for the time being.. if u got corals then ul need stronger light but if its only liverock and fish ul b fine.. but I cnt stress enough how important it is to switch the bulbs... u should do another wc afer about 6-7 days later so u dnt stress ur delicate shrimp or fish maybe even 4-5 days.. but what I would do is every other day do a small water change of 5 gallons every other day to keep introducing ro water without giving ur live stock too much stress..
 
The light fixture is "ok" for the time being.. if u got corals then ul need stronger light but if its only liverock and fish ul b fine.. but I cnt stress enough how important it is to switch the bulbs... u should do another wc afer about 6-7 days later so u dnt stress ur delicate shrimp or fish maybe even 4-5 days.. but what I would do is every other day do a small water change of 5 gallons every other day to keep introducing ro water without giving ur live stock too much stress..

THANKS David and ok ill do 5 gals today and every other, and as far as the light gos ill get new bulbs coming but i need to get a bigger filter system and skimmer first all im running right now is a AQUA-Tech 30-60 but its ding a [moderator edit] good job water is really clean and clear
 
No problem... yea I'm running a remora pro skimmer and it duz an awesome job plus its low profile
 
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