Taking over a tank...

[stratomom]

Naturally...after I spent hundreds of dollars starting my tank, one came up for sale from someone at my workplace. She'd had the tank for about 10 years and her last fish had just died so she was ready to get rid of it. She only wanted $125 for everything, so I snagged it since the tank and stand alone would be more than that.

The only problem is that when I picked it up today, I couldn't get the stand in the car with everything else, so I couldn't re-set it up right away...and I couldn't go back today and get it. She's bringing it to me tomorrow. The rock is wrapped in wet paper and placed in plastic and the substrate is in a bucket. So my question is...are my chances of salvaging any of the biology shot because the rock/substrate is having to sit outside the tank? I guess if I have to start completely over, it's not that big of a deal, I was just curious. It's a 46 gallon bowfront and there's a lot of rock and coral that came with it.

 

[Gti_Leo]

it probably won't last, it'll dry out and probably end up drying.. you should have transported the rock in buckets of water as well as the sand to preserve some of the life in them.

 

[stratomom]

it probably won't last, it'll dry out and probably end up drying.. you should have transported the rock in buckets of water as well as the sand to preserve some of the life in them.

Yeah, that probably would have been better. I just wasn't prepared to not be able to set it back up today.

Thanks,

Rachael

 

[stratomom]

Well...now I'm not going to get the stand until tomorrow. So I mixed up some salt water into buckets to move the rock to. Everything was still really wet when I unwrapped it, so maybe it still has at least some biology left on it.

There are a few pieces that I would like to put in my current tank, but I'll need to let them completely cycle in the other tank first, won't I?

Thanks,

Rachael

 

[Gti_Leo]

depends how much die off is on the rock. the could be a small ammonia spike but hopefully your live rock would take care of that.

you could let the die off do a mini cycle in a smaller tank and then place them in yours. just hope all the coral and stuff is still doing fine. how were those transported?

 

[stratomom]

There's no live coral, or fish for that matter... otherwise, I would have figured out something else in a hurry.

There was just the live rock, sand, the tank, stand, and all the equipment.

The live rock was wrapped in tank water-soaked paper and put in plastic so it wouldn't dry out. But she only did that because I had intended on setting the tank back up as soon as I got home with it. But since it didn't work out that way, I didn't take the rock out until this evening. Like I said, it's now in saltwater in buckets.

I think to be safe, I'll just let the rock cycle in the tank once I get it set up and then I'll worry about moving a few pieces to my other tank.

 

[Gti_Leo]

you could let it cycle in the tank, but you can also test the water so see if there are any spikes or if it stays steady