live rock purchase question

[pbpainted]

HAS ANYONE PURCHASED CURED LIVE ROCK THAT HAS A COLONY OF ANTS LIVING IN IT AND IS THIS SOMETHING THAT IS COMMON????

 

[Reeffreak]

That rock sounds like extra cured live rock! The type that is maybe cured, then placed in a box for a couple of days and then shipped to your door. This would have given the ants tiume to move in and take residence. The rock may have even been out of a tank longer than a couple of days. Make sure you don't use RAID to kill off the ants, it might have a serious side affect to the well being of your tank.

Steve

 

[pbpainted]

LOL...Yes you are probably correct RAID would have a serious side affect. I appreciate your input. Is this common? The advertisement says that this is supposed to be cured and never set in the sun. The place I purchased it is also a well used site that I have seen mentioned a lot in the different BB's. It is just amazing that they don't back up their product any better than that.

 

[Reeffreak]

Cured live rock should be for the most part ready to place in your system with minimal die-off. Rock placed in an area where Ants can move in (ie outside of water other than shipping) basically means you will experience quite a bit of die-off once the rock is entered into your tank and no I don't think this is common practice for "cured" live rock.

I guess it was more live than expected or maybe you have discovered a new underwater Ant species?

Steve

 

[Anonymous]

Could I ask who you bought this live rock from?

 

[pbpainted]

MARINE DEPOT

 

[JohnD]

I know you paid for cured LR, but I would treat it as uncured. I don't think the ants will be happy with their first ocean swim

.

Then see if Marine Depot could work something out with you.

 

[Evets]

Although I don't think it is likely... Is there any chance the ants boarded the rock sometime during shipping? I certainly wasn't expecting this when I opened your thread. Apart from the ants, how is the quality of the rock? Maybe the ants are copepods in disguise

-Steve

 

[Len]

Can you provide pictures of the live rock? I have never known of any online vendors that store live rock out of water. I've seen Marine Depot's facilities (they're impressive) and can't forumalate any reasonable hypothesis as to what happened here.

The ants you're describing .... are they common terrestrial black/brownish ants? And other then the presnese of these "ants," is the reminder of the live rock in good condition?

 

[Jeff Hood]

I can tell you even if your rock sat in a warehouse for 45 min. with a population of ants nearby, the smell of any rotting debris would be a huge stimulus to invade the box. It would not take long to have a box full of ants. If your rock smells fresh and is damp then its fine. If it smells like a sewer or is completly dried out then that is another matter.

If the rock looks good, don't worry about it. Just give them a good rinse in fresh sea water and put it in your tank. watch for a mini cycle and have a blast with your new rock.

Jeff

 

[pbpainted]

The rock was pretty dry but did have a layer of newspaper on it. The coralline algae was crusty and the smell was very bad. I did put two of the rocks in my tank and that was a very big mistake because most of my life(polyps, xenia, snails, and mshrooms) have died because of the major ammonia spike and even though I removed the rocks a couple of days later I am still having problems with the cycling. I may have a also lost my SPS but still waiting on that. The ants were definately ants and not copapods. In what I have heard from other chats on this same problem the bag should have been totally sealed preventing the ants from entering unless of course the bag is ripped which it was not but was not sealed at all just laid over. I was not happy with the rock at all but I have finally cycled mostof it and put it it in the tank. I cut everything off of it and (except for the prev mentioned two rocks which did not get in on hte cleaning and i am doing them now) and went through until the nitrites were gone.