added liverock, complete dieoff, and nasty smell . now what?

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Mach

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jan 23, 2004
Messages
47
Location
New York
threw in 160lbs of live rock and 50lbs of live sand from Liverocks.com into my new tank on wed. Within 24hrs, every shrimp, snail, worm,crab, anything living on my rock and sand crawled to the front of the tank and died. Water turned brown. Whitish cotton substance rose to the surface , covering all of water. Smelled like death. What could of caused this? I did originally start my tank with tap water. But added 15g of RO water before rock was added. Could the tap be the main reason? The temp was at around 75. The SG was at around 1.025.

But all in a days work today, I managed to do a 100% water change this morning using only R0 water. Skimmed all dead lifeforms. Rinsed rock, cleaned off all powerheads, filter hoses , etc. Everything was pretty much contaminated by this nasty filth. I also am getting a sump and protein skimmer tommorrow. LFS told me a skimmer would be a great addition.

Am i missing anything? Where did I go wrong?

Thanks,
Anthony
 
Wow, that is a surprise! I also received 2 boxes of LR from liverock.com last week (60 lbs) and all was and is fine. LR was relatively fresh, not much of a smell. I dumped the rocks into a rubbermaid container that I had prepared with aged tank water from a water change in anticipation of the rocks. Left the rocks in the rubbermaid with a heater & powerhead overnight until I had time the next day (Sat) to arrange the LR in the tank.
6 days now and all is fine, tested levels & no abnormal readings.
Did you leave the LR out of water for a long time? Was your tank water running for a while?
Did the LR stink when you unwrapped the paper towels?
Sounds like your going through the curing process again, luckily there are no fish or corals. Definitely get the skimmer, it'll help tremendously.
 
Pecan2phat, curious, How many hitchhickers did you get with the live rock? Ex. shrimp, stars, coral, etc....
 
Anthony sounds like you had some fairly serious dieoff from the transport and that seems to be uncommon for LR.com rock. Do you know how long it was in transport and how long it was at your location prior to adding it to the tank?

Did you test your tank for ammonia or nitrite during this dieoff period? Im sure it was off the scale. Once ammonia and nitrite are 0 for a few days your ready for fish.
 
Rock smelled good when I opened the boxes. My boxes were the first to be opened by airport security. Maybe that could of played a role. I dont know. It was in the boxes for over 24hrs. The rock wasnt out of the water for a long time. And my tank was running for about 2 weeks. How long does this curing process take? What should I expect? Any foul odors, et.? And how long till I start to see some life from my rocks?

Thanks for helping me out,
Anthony
 
MT79 said:
Pecan2phat, curious, How many hitchhickers did you get with the live rock? Ex. shrimp, stars, coral, etc....

MT79,
There wasn't as much as I thought I would find based on member's previous purchases.
There were a couple of serpent stars, some tiny encrusted clams, probably about a half dozen or so of small crabs. I didn't see any corals or shrimps but I'm sure that the're a few pistols in the rocks cause I hear them snap at night.
Found a handful of dead med size crabs at the bottom of the box though.
Hope this answers your ?
All-in-all, I found that the LR was worth it because it is as fresh as you can get without going through the curing cycle (been there, done that, no fun. Sort of like what Mach is going through). As for coraline coverage, it's moderate, nothing like Fiji coverage.
Some of the other factors were price, LR being aquacultured vs wild harvest and being fresh vs uncured or pre-cured.


Mach,
I would do frequent 20% water changes and add a good skimmer to the tank. The curing process should take about 2 to 3 weeks.
 
How often should i do these water changes? I will be adding my skimmer on today. So I should expect this nasty smell for 2-3 weeks?
 
The smell should die down after the initial die off which you have already taken out as much visable die off and performed a major water change.
You will need to monitor the skimmer cup on a daily basis. This cup should fill up quickly due to the conditions off the tank. I would do a 20% every 4 days until the curing process is finished. That's my opinion, others may have more knowledge in this area and will definitely add to my habits and theory.
You should keep your lights off at this point as to avoid an algae bloom from the ripe conditions. If you see surviving life on the rocks that need light, then maybe you can turn on NO flourescent for a couple of hours a day. (I'd just leave the lights off)
 
Personally I would recommend a more aggressive waterchange schedule, I would go 50% every other day to minimize any more die off. Contamonation of the rock is certainly a possibility, if the rock was opened at the airport around something that was bad for the rock....then that would contribute to the die off.
 
I am surpised that it smelled fine when you got it and such, but you place in the tank smeels bad. Usually the other way around :?

I would really do some water changes as well, can't think what happen...
 
I am thinking the tap water was responsible...any more thoughts on that?
 
My tank seems to be recover now. Since adding more powerheads , canister filter , and skimmer, sump, things seem to be getting better. Once my Aquafx Barracuda RO comes in, i will be doing another 50% water change. I cant afford to keep buying RO for $199 a gallon.

My LFS told me that it wasnt neccessary to do water changes, unless the smell was unbearable. They told me to just let the rock cure. And to let everything cycle out. They said that it would fix itself. Any truth to this?
 
I think it would "fix itself", but by doing water changes to keep the ammonia etc. down you'll save more life in/on the rock and, IMO, be happier in the long run. It should also reduce the amount of time it takes to fully cycle.
 
FWIW I had a similar experience with my liverocks.com purchase. The inside temp of the boxes was down to 60 degrees when I opened them. There were some dead crabs in the bottom of the box and a couple still running around.

I placed the rock in a 20 gallon rubbermaid overnight (fresh sw mix and some tank water, some sand from the tank and a few small pieces of LR from the main tank.

I wanted to do a FW or carbonated water dip the next day to rid the rock of any unwanted hitchhikers. Last Saturday morning I awoke to that awful sewer smell in the living room.

I did at least a 30% water change every day using water from the main tank as the replacement. I had 2 PH's and a heater in there.

I put the LR into the main tank yesterday. I did a FW dip first to make sure there no pests, but not much survived the curing process. No shrimps in this batch either (not that I wanted any).
 
Even though my order from liverock.com came in without some of the above mentioned problems, I just think that it's just too cold up here in the northeast to purchase "fresh" LR this time of the year.
Think about it, liverock.com differs by attempting to send consumers the freshest rock available vs transhipped rock that has been sitting on a beach for days then held up in custom for another day or two. Believe me, you do pay for it via overnight shipping rates, but this is part of their business model.
I would definitely buy from Zack again, but I would plan it out better. I think spring and fall is a good time to order, probably see more of the lifeforms survive.
Others have also done very well with the other company that produces aquacultured LR in Florida. I forget their name, something like Tampa Bay Saltwater.....?
I heard good testimonials regarding their product but expect to pay almost 50% more. In addition, they use Fedex in which you can opt to have the shipment held at the local Fedex depot. This can buy you another 6 hrs that the fresh uncured rock gets into water.
 
Everyone, thanks for the advice. I really appreciate it. I now know what to do. This forum has helped me alot.


Thanks again,
Anthony
 
Mach,
Just browsing a website that sells uncured LR, and these are their instructions:

cure live reef rock, you need the following equipment:
suitable size container (plastic garbage cans work well)
protein skimmer
powerheads
heater
a small scrub brush
ammonia, nitrite, nitrate test kits

Instructions:
scrub off any dead sponges and soft corals
use good quality saltwater
use no lights for at least 10 days to avoid an algae bloom due to high nutrients
keep water heated (72-78 F)
perform frequent 50-100% water changes every 2-3 days
provide plenty of water movement within the container
provide plenty of oxygenation in the water by using the skimmer
The curing process will take 2-4 weeks depending on the amount of die-off on your rock

Removing Unwanted Guests:
A very effective treatment for eliminating unwanted critters in your fresh Live Rock is to dip each piece in a bucket of very saline water (SG 1.030) for a few moments. Mantis shrimp and bristle worms will quickly evacuate the rock.

(Iknow the garbage can thing won't apply, but they do state higher percentage of water changes more frequently)
 
pecan2phat said:
I just think that it's just too cold up here in the northeast to purchase "fresh" LR this time of the year.

The day that mine showed up it was 15 F outside. I know that it was shipped at 7pm the previous day and I received it at 10:30 am. I had no problem whatsoever. There was no smell, no dieoff and lots of things crawling everywhere. I would have preferred to do it in warmer weather, but I don't think I could have come out of the deal any better than I did.


Jim
 
but I don't think I could have come out of the deal any better than I did.
Your mileage may vary :wink: .
Mine got in around 12:30 p.m., was cold and there were some dead crabs in the bottom as well as some live ones. Perhaps you had more heat packs in your shipment, or it spent less time in an unheated warehouse or truck.
 
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