What do I get rid of and what do I keep from LR?

[33w_fish_guy]

My shipment should be coming in today and I am very interested in getting my hands wet, but before I start I wanted to ask if there is somewhere I can go to identify the critters that I find so I know which ones to get rid off and which ones to keep. I was planing is just rinsing the LR and attempt to identify sponges, dead spots and remove them. I realized that I will have no clue at what Im looking at. Can you guy give me a lil help? I plan on taking lot of pictures. I haved prepared about 25gal of SW to use and also I sort of have incresed the lighting from a 1 50/50, now I have a 50/50 and antic bulb on my setup. I have them now on a timer and it is set for 4hrs daily. Does limited sunlight count into that 4hr, cause my setup is about 5 ft next to a sliding door? I have a covered porch, so there is not direct sunlight. Should I move it before I put the LR in?

 

[bound_for_obx]

I would highly recommend having another tank set up and ready to accept any critters that you are not sure about. I didn't, and I regret that I ended up tossing a number of critters that might have been keepers.

 

[jackdp]

Here is a guide with pics to help id some LR hitchhikers....

http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/

Also check in the Identification forum on this site, there's some good pics of hitchikers there too.

 

[33w_fish_guy]

Thanks for the info jackdp! I just found out my shipment is in town I can wait to get it.

 

[XXFirefighter]

Pretty much mantis shrimp would be yoru REAL BAD ones you can get rid of off the start. I did a hypersalienty cooler water temp dip... All the stars were fine and the mantis jumped out.

 

[33w_fish_guy]

Ive seen many types of diping for preping the LR and cleaning and getting lil critters out, is there one that is most effective?

 

[XXFirefighter]

Ive seen many types of diping for preping the LR and cleaning and getting lil critters out, is there one that is most effective?

personal prefrence I think...
I had my 55 gallon tank set up ready to go...
I had a 5 gallon bucket with the hyper salted water. About room temp. Then I just dipped and dumked the rock a few times no longer then 2 min and stuff was jumping out... The good stuff I tossed in my premade water that was going in the tank and the bad stuff into a pitcher of regular salt water.

I put the rock in first then sand. Then added the water and then last the good critters...