transfering live rock from 1 tank to the other?

[Jarrett]

i got a nice piece of rock from a friend yesterday i took it out of his tank it was out of water for about 3 hours and then i put it in my tank, i just wanted to make sure this was ok and the rock isnt going to die off in my tank or something and polute it, im not really familiar with how the liverock stuff works so just wanna double check

 

[TomStav]

From my understanding you should transport all live rock submerged in water or you risk killing of the bacteria that will then require curing. If you put a lot of LR that has been out of water for a while in a tank it can cause spikes in your ammonia levels, if it's just a small piece and you have a large established tank then the spike may not be significant enough to cause any problems. If you want to play it safe you could cure it in a temp tank/ bucket...

Sent from my iPad using Aquarium

 

[austinsdad]

What sized tank and how much rock was it added to? If enuf, I'd put it in and watch the ammonia for a day or two.

 

[Jarrett]

45 gallon tank and it was only one piece, probally 3 pounnds if that and yea my ammonia has been at .05 for the past couple days but this was because i had to much stuff in the tank and i had this black urchin which wouldnt stop crapping all over my tank and well obv hes not in their anymore so im keeping my close eye on the ammonia i check it every day its been pretty constant between 0 and 0.5

 

[melosu58]

If it was out of water for three hours then you`ll experience some die off. Any coralline will bleach white but eventually color back up. You most likely lost all your nitrifying bacteria on that rock.

 

[Jarrett]

thats fine i dont mind the rock dieng and then coming back to life i just dont want it to make the ammonia spike any more then it already has its one piece tho so i didnt think it would be that much of a factor but im not sure

 

[austinsdad]

A balck urchin's stuff will not cause ammonia to rise.

 

[Jarrett]

if you saw how much crap was sitting on each corner of my tank from him i think you would think differantly

 

[Jarrett]

didnt find any decaying food i know all my live stock and none of them are dead the only thing decaying in my tank was his crap, so what else would it be

 

[austinsdad]

I can't see right now, so tell me how large is your tank and how much rock was in there before you added the 3 lbs? How old is the tank also?

 

[Jarrett]

yea im not at home plus i dont have a camera i really want to get pics up soon, but its a 45 gallon tank and theirs at the least 40 lbs of rock in their probally more i bought rock at diff times and i never accounted for it so i really dont have an approx but the whole tank is stocked with rock and the tank is brand new prob running a month and a 1/2

 

[Jarrett]

and the ammonia was spiked before i added the rock last night not really spiked but at the .05 range

 

[austinsdad]

Get a second test with another kit maybe. LFS?

 

[Jarrett]

yea guess ill have to try but i did call alot of local stores and they told me .05 is nothing to worry about so i dont think i am going to go through all the trouble just yet if it jumps to 1.0 then i am going to take action. because before i took the urchin out the test read more towrds 5.0 and then when i took him out it started reaing between 0 and .05 so as crazy as it sounds and everyone can say im stupid for thinking it i really think it was the urchin i wish i had a pic of the piles of crap this thing left in the corners of the tank lol but its all good thanks for the help

 

[austinsdad]

5.0 is cycling high. Toxic. .5 is still something to worry about IMO. I'm thinking those piles in the corner are leftover food in dead spots where there is no circulation.