Probably stupid question, but do you need to feed Live Rock?

[Logic_Bomb]

I want to have live sand and rock in my new aquarium for a few weeks before adding fish. Do I need to feed them anything?

 

[Anonymous]

No.

No such thing as a stupid question at RDO, either.

 

[Anonymous]

Are you getting cured or uncured live rock? You need to read FAQ on cycling, would hate to see you have an ammonia spike and kill of your fish.

 

[Logic_Bomb]

Are you getting cured or uncured live rock? You need to read FAQ on cycling, would hate to see you have an ammonia spike and kill of your fish.

Which one should I get? Oh, and where can I find that faq?

 

[danmhippo]

Here you go,

Reefs.Org Library:

http://www.reefs.org/library/

and Welcome to Reefs.org.

 

[Microcosmos]

It depends on which "hitchhikers" you want to keep alive. If the rock is fresh enough you'll probably have some corals, coralline algae and even macroalgae, all of which would benefit from the light your finished reef setup will have, and possibly the added minerals. Water changes are probably good enough for the minerals/salts, and you'll be doing water changes more frequently than normal for a new setup especially if there's a lot of die-off. Copepods and amphipods will probably get by on detritus and dying or new algae, any other critters with legs are probably undesirable, most hitchhiker crabs and the rock dwelling mantis shrimp are unwelcome in most aquariums, so if they starve it's less hassle down the road for you. Worms can probably get by on rotting stuff as well. Any bivalves, sponges and tunicates that may be attached are desirable additions to your biofilter if they live as they are filter feeders and can be pretty, but these are one of the big sources of dead things usually if the rock isn't really fresh and handled well. So in other words, like mentioned above, no need to stick in extra nutrients when curing liverock but maybe keep the lights up (some don't like this though because of undesirable algae blooms, but if you see budding macroalgae it will eventualy overtake the micro/hair and be a good way to export nutrients/speed up the cycle).

 

[Anonymous]

The live rock is more a producer of food (algae, pods).

 

[Anonymous]

If you use uncured live rock you are going to be doing more frequent water changes until your parameters stabilize.