Live Rock question

[fishman]

I am about to order LR from Liverocks.com. I want to know what everyone elses experience with the rock with regards to when you get it, do you just throw it in the tank? What is the consensus as far as doing this. i think I have read several posts (but cant find them) where people have done this. Just a quick response as to what each person has done.
thanks!

 

[Gibeon]

Here's an article that I found rather helpful on Live Rock and what to do with it!

 

[fishman]

WOW...2-3 weeks for already cured rock? that seems like a lot to me. But again if it works for you, I will keep this in mind. I guess the only question that arises is if the rock is shipped over night and is to me the next day, it will only be out of the water for a matter of hours....right. Dont know that a lot of die off will occur. Just thinking out loud..
Thanks

 

[firerescue2002]

Certain mobile and immobile hitchhikers will die when removed from the water,depending on what is on your LR and how it is shipped. No matter the length out of water it is inevitable to not have any die off. I have had dead sponges,encrusted corals, and countless other things arrive on previously ordered LR.

Andrew

 

[pecan2phat]

I have ordered from liverock.com on two ocsassions and this is what I noticed: First off, liverock.com's LR is fresh aquacultured rock which is not cured or pre-cured. If you place this in an existing well established tank, then all you might experience is a minimal ammonia spike in which your bio-media can handle, so basically, do nothing.
If you place the LR in a new tank that you are setting up, then your ammonia, nitrite & nitrate levels will go through the roof, but only for a short amount of time. (12 days vs a full cycle of 6 weeks). During this time, I made a 50% water change every 3 days on four occassions.
Reason being that unless you have LR shipped under water, you will have some die off but not nearly as bad as transhipped LR. That stuff will stink up your house for 4 weeks & you must cure it outside of your tank.
Since liverock.com does not cure their rock and they ship it to you overnight vs most places that use 2 day, it would be quite hard to find any other source that will give you a LR that can be placed straight into an aquarium other than store bought cured LR that has no lifeforms except for coralline algae on it.

 

[fishman]

My 125 tank has been set up since Dec and I have 30 lbs of LR in there now with 2 clowns, 1 damsel, 1 lawnmower blenny, 1 yellow wrasse.
So from what I gathered from Pecan2phat, I do nothing other than throw the LR in the tank as it doesnt need to be cured?? Just making sure. I dont want to kill everything I have in there now.I think I have read several other posts that people just throw the rock right into the tank. I just cant seem to find the posts.....
Thanks

 

[pecan2phat]

fishman,
what other bio-media do you have other than the 30 lbs of LR? If this is the only bio-filtration that your 125g has, then you will probably go through a cycle.
I referenced to my experience with 60 lbs of LR from liverock.com going into a 90g tank that has been well established for 5+ years with a wet/dry trickle filter. My bio-load was tremendous due to the 11 med to large fishes that I have and the wet/dry has been able to keep up with that bio-load. When I added the 60 lbs of LR, the existing wet/dry took the small ammonia & nitrite spike with no problem.
If you put lets say 100 lbs of liverock.com's LR into your 125g & your only biological filtration is the 30 lbs of LR that you already have, then you will go through a heavy cycle. The cycle will be short & sweet, but I don't think your fish will do well through this cycle. We're talking about ammonia going towards 5 ppm (greater than .25=toxic) & nitrite past 2 ppm (greater than .02=toxic).

 

[fishman]

sorry I didnt include anything else. I have a wet/dry sealife system 125, Aqua C remora Skimmer as well as the 30 lbs of LR. I only have 4 small fish and 18 small to medium snails. Again its been set up since Dec of last year.
Also Im only adding 30 lbs of LR from liverocks.com...
does this help??

 

[pecan2phat]

Yes, with your parameters, you can add the 30 lbs of LR from liverock.com into your tank with no problems. Your bio-filtration will be able to handle any small die off from the LR.
Here's a suggestion and is what I did: get 2 five gallon pails (you will need 4 if you also use buckets to drain your water from the tank) or a rubbermaid container (whatever you use for water changes) and prepare a 8 gallon water change the night before your LR is scheduled to come. (I say the night before because you should let your newly made water mix throughly overnight) That morning, perform the water change but save the 8 gallons of old tank water. Use this to dip vigorously and rinse the LR prior to placing in your tank. This way, any dead material will fall off and this will also make some of the critters fall off the rocks also. This way you can choose what you want to put back into the tank. I did this and a lot of crabs fell off and I chose to put them in a different tank then where the LR was going. I also caught a 1.25" mantis shrimp this way.