got my live rocks

[dhuv]

I got my rocks today from liveaquaria.com. They were out of the fiji so I opted to get the lalo rocks. I followed their instructions to submerge the rocks into very salty water to get all the little critters out, but I must not have done the big piece properly and now I see some worms. What is the best thing to do about them? I know they said to go and clean the rocks every week and take out the debris. Should I make sure that I take out all the worms? What kind of problems do they cause in a tank? Do you think they will die during the curing process?

Thanks,
dhuv

 

[Len]

I personally don't "cleanse" the my rocks before I add them other then to remove obviously decaying matter like dying sponges (most common). This kinda of stuff you can smell immediately and should definitely be removed. Other then that, I keep all the stuff that comes on the live rock, worms included. Worms are very good for reef ecosystems, serving as one of the most efficient scavanger or grazer there is. Some may die off during the curing process, but a good population will survive and populate the rock and sandbed (a good thing). Only a tiny handful of bristle worms become problems and so I wouldn't worry about it. The most common nasty critter you can inadvertedly import is a mantis shrimp. If you here rapid series of clicking, locate the source and remove the rock suspected and you can flush the mantis shrimp out with soda water.

 

[dhuv]

The worms are starting to creap out of the rock. Will they always be like that or will they eventually go into hiding. Does anyone know why they are creaping out right now?

Also my tank STINKS. Jeez it smells like the petstore. Thats exactly how the box of live rocks smelled when I first got it. I think it has gotten better now but is this normal? And will it be ok after a couple-few weeks (after the cycle has completed).

My skimmer is finally doing what it needs to. Before I added the live rocks it used to foam a tiny bit but nothing ever used to get to the cup on top. Now I see a 1/2" layer of brown crap at the bottom of the cup and the thing is filled with foam. Its finally working I guess. Can anyone tell me what that brown stuff is? Is it just the stuff thats dead that my skimmer is picking up? I used to have a problem of lots of tiny bubbles in my tank when my skimmer was on, but now its nice, no more bubbles, definetly something to be happy about.

Thanks for the advice above, I will definetly leave the worms.

Thanks,
dhuv

 

[Lostmind]

Worms are good. I usually only see them stick out of my rock at night now.

I would monitor your ammonia, nitrite and nitrates and do frequent water changes to keep them all low... as far as I understand, keeping them low helps to preserve the life on your rocks... plus, frequent water changes keeps the smell down a bit... but be prepared for it to smell for a few weeks...

the stuff in your skimmer is any particules floating in the water column - fish poo, worm poo, stuff from your rocks, etc.

 

[hsosa]

Keep the worms. they will go back into the rocks. let the skimmer do the job. you might want to run carbon to get the smell out. use good carbon though not the cheap stuff. Run the carbon in a nylon suck and hang it in front of a flow or pump. make sure you rinse the carbon first in water. get the residue off.

 

[Len]

The carbons I recommend are TLF's Hydrocarbon or Seachem's Matrix carbon. It'll help with the smell. BTW, the smell is normal part of a new tank, and I may just be a complete weirdo, but I've even learned to appreciate it since it reminds me of new aquariums

The skimmer is doing what it's suppose to Now that it's broken in, the bubbles getting back into the tank will reduce as you've observed. And all that brown gunk is classic skimmate.

Worms will usually go back into hiding unless the lights are off.