New to saltwater aquariums

[bxcarracer82]

I've started a 30 gallon tank, with live sand and a fluorescent light and a 200GPH filter. I had a friend who had 35 lbs of live rock that he removed from his tank, because he was quitting. This live rock sat in his garage, and everything in it died off over a few month period. He gave all this dry former fiji liverock to me, and I added it to my tank. I bought 2 damsels to begin the tanks cycle, how long will it be until the tank is cycled roughly? and is there anything else that I should buy or keep an eye on? I have a refractometer and a PH Ammonia Nitrite and nitrate test kit. Thanks!

 

[CaptainAhab]

You should get the fish out of there. The die off on the LR will handle the cycle. Why torture the fish? IMO.

To answer your question. Keep an eye on the fish. They are gonna go thru alot of pain and possibly die. FWIW

 

[Yellow Eye Tang]

First of all,.. i hope that if you decide to quit you give the "live" rock away or back to the LFS. There is TONS of life on each one of those and it's sad to hear that it was treated that way. I don't know how much decomp is on the rock and if your really serious about long term saltwater than I would suggest PWC once a week checking nitrites and nitrates in between. Keep your eye on salinity and temperature before you place new water in the tank. An R/O unit is great - tap water doesn't work good at all in saltwater. Good lighting and water changes will be key. Other than that as far as cycling is all I can give you for now. Patience and time will allow it to turn over. 30g should take two weeks or so but keep checking nitrite / nitrate and PH levels to insure the damsels are not stressed.

 

[bxcarracer82]

Will there be any die off from the live rock even though it was removed from water for 3 months? And yes it's a shame that my idiot friend treated the rock that way.

 

[roka64]

Yep, there will be plenty of die off from the rock. I would also suggest taking the damsels back for a few reasons:
1 It's more humane to do a fishless cycle, imagine, you living in an ammonia filled sewage pit.
2 Those buggers are hard to get out.
3 They can really be nasty to newcomers.

 

[thincat]

Even though you have the fiji rock which is no longer live. you will need to pickup some real live rock to seed the dead rock you have in there now. You won't need much so it should not cost you an fin and a tail.