Live rock dead?

[Richison]

I recently moved my tank from CA to PA. I packed the rock in styrofoam coolers and covered them with wet newspaper. Trip took about 2 weeks. When I opened the coolers, the news paper was still wet which I'm taking as a good sign. I've had my tank up and running for about 3 months now, and the coralline algae has slowly disappeared (There are still trace amounts), and other than green algae, there is nothing growing on my rock.

Is there any way to tell if my live rock is still alive? Should I be worried about it? Also, my CA is a bit high. It's like 550. Would that be an issue for the lack of coralline?

All other levels are normal.

 

[Anonymous]

So the tank has been up for three months after the move, or it was up for three months and then moved?

Either way, after a two week stay out of water, I have a feeling you've lost a great deal of your 'life'--the bacteria and whatnot. It will come back eventually, you just have to give it time. You'll probably see the ammonia-nitrite-nitrate spikes as you go through the cycle again.

At least it beats buying all new rock, huh?

 

[Richison]

Yea, we are talking 100 lbs of rock. So it definately beats buying new.

The tank was up about 4 months before I moved it. It had completed it's cycle and I was starting to get coralline growth on the glass. Still quite new to this. Starting over didn't help.

I've thought about adding some more live rock to it. Will that help speed it along? Not thinking about a lot just about maybe 10-15 more lbs.

 

[cdeakle]

Listen to sharkky, he knows his stuff.

You will have to cure your live rock again and go through the whole process all over. If you can get some fully cured rock with an abundance of life you can add it to your current rock to re-seed it.

Just have patience...you will be back in no time

 

[Richison]

What do you mean by re-curing my live rock? It really didn't have enough dead stuff on it. Might have had a little at first, but I don't think it was enough to be cured again. Plus it's been up and running in my tank for 3 months.

On a side note, during the shipping process the pesky crab that was eating my damsels died in transit. That's the only good thing about moving this tank that has occured.

 

[Anonymous]

LOL, well there's at least one positive then! Although a crab eating damsels is kind of a toss-up as to which is better (or worse!). ;-)

Even though your rock may not have had much stuff visible on it to die off, it will re-cycle because of all the stuff you couldn't see--all the micro-algaes, small sponges in crevices, bacteria, etc.

You could help the re-seeding process along you could add a bit more rock. You could also add a few cups of live sand from an established tank. Then as others have said it's just a matter of sitting back and giving it some time!

 

[cdeakle]

Anytime you take rock out of the aquarium for a period of time there is some die off. If you were to put the rock back into the aquarium and add livestock right away, good chances they will die because the ammonia levels would spike up to dangerouse levels.

Even though it does not appear there was much die off to the naked eye, like sharrky said, theres alot going on that you can't see.

Wait awhile and when all the water parameters are good and the tank has been cycled your good to go. Better safe than sorry! Go to a local store and see if you can find some fully cured rock/sand with alot of beneficial bacteria and buy a small amount and place it in your tank. This will reseed your old rock and with time you will regain good bacteria, coraline algae.....

 

[Richison]

How much live sand should I add to be beneficial?

 

[Anonymous]

IT will come back i tell ya....the Livingness of the rock will come back...mine some what died off like yours Richi (for whatever reason?) but after a few weeks, it started coming back...!!!

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