How long can live rock sit out of the water without die off

[*sharkbait*]

I know this sounds silly but how long can live rock sit out of the water without die off. I recently bought my first coral the other day, a frag, and it got viciously eaten by some emerald crabs and some hitchhiker crabs that I got in the tank. Last Night, after i discovered the incident I came to the conclusion that the crabs were the culprits and they had to go. Catching these things were a pain, and I didn't catch all of them, but the process I used was a net (which didnt work well) and actually physically removing all the rock in the tank and pulling the crabs into a quarantined area. The rock ended up in 5 gal buckets and I tried to fill the buckets with some of the tank water, but some of the rock was exposed to the air for a bit of time. So thus I get back to my question, How long can live rock sit out of the water without die off. Should I expect a huge ammonia spike or will everything be all right. The rock that was exposed to the air was maybe exposed for 15 min. Any input would be appreciated

 

[RMPD109]

you shouldnt see any negative affects. the only die off would be if a sponge or something similar was exposed.

 

[mjvincent]

you shouldnt see any negative affects. the only die off would be if a sponge or something similar was exposed.

Ditto

 

[malkore]

If you put the rock into a bucket that's mostly freshwater (hypo-salinity) the crabs should flee the rock, looking for saltier water. then you can net them.

 

[klam]

Die-off will happen. The some of the bacteria on the rock that was exposed to air is probably going to die. You should be OK.

 

[*sharkbait*]

Really thats interesting - can you go more into the hyposalinity thing. Will the other items on the rock die off too such as if there are little sponges or other items on the rock. I know I know you cant have your cake it eat it too but it sure would taste good!!!!!