Did my low PH kill my LR?

[joeyfromlawrenceville]

Hi Gang,
1st of all - HI to the group... I just joined.

I'm an old dude - old school ,trying to break into the 20th century way of LIVE ROCK. I set up a small Pico w/ LR and forgot to raise PH in the RO saltwater I bought . I waited a few days before testing my water to see if it was suitable to my first shrimp/coral. PH not high enough to read on my scale( maybe 7.5?), Did I kill my bacteria on the LR making it Dead Rock? Also , any chance there is a living creature left on my rock?

PS: good news is it is only 3#'s of rock in this little tank.

Thanks in advance, Joey

 

[roka64]

Welcome to the site!
I doubt your beneficial bacteria is gone. One way to test is add a small pinch of food and check (3-4) days for ammonia.
You will be surprised at what will come out of the rock, just give it a few months.

 

[Tank2379]

Well since it's a new tank depending on where you got you LR from you can get some die off.... It's common for that to happen from what i've read but wit your PH being low i don't think i's that low to kill it off like that.... But your PH level for salt water should be between 8.2 and 8.4..... But i would wait and see what these other guys would say about that.....

Oh and welcome to AA....

 

[cmor1701d]

I agree with Scott's (roka64) advice (I usually do). And ...

 

[joeyfromlawrenceville]

Thanks for the replies. I will add some flake food and see what happens, I assume if the amonia level is up a cosiderable bit there is no bacteria left. I may replace a small piece of rock with LR from the LFS to make sure I have some good bacteria, after all I can take the questionable rock and throw it in one of my other tanks.

 

[cmor1701d]

Adding a source of ammonia is all it takes. The beneficial bacteria will grow.