Keeping Live Rock Alive

[owenz]

Hi Everyone,

I have been planning to set up my reef tank for a while, but I recently ran into an "offer I couldn't refuse" - 70 lbs of high quality live rock, a remora skimmer, a UV sterilizer, a bunch of reef additives/chemicals, and two powerheads for $325. Needless to say, I need to get my butt in gear in terms of emptying my tank (set up for fresh) and preparing it for the live rock.

Here's my dilemma: I need to keep the live rock healthy and alive until the tank (46-gallon bowfront) is ready to accept it. The guy who I am purchasing the rock from has been keeping it in coolers for the past week, as he just broke down his 125. The rock smells fine and looks good, so it appears to be in good shape.

My main concerns:

1. Keeping it alive outside the tank - will the rock be okay if I simply keep it submerged in properly mixed salt water? Do I need to do water changes? Is temperature an issue? It's my understanding that live rock is fairly rugged (as far as aquatic organisms go), but I want to do all I can to keep it healthy.

2. Adding the rock to the tank - it's my understanding that the tank should run for two weeks without anything in it, and rock should only then be added if the chemistry tests correctly after the two weeks. Can this process be accelerated by the addition of live sand (which I plan to buy)? How quickly can I safely add the rock? I'm going to take the addition of fish extremely slowly, so at this point, I'm only concerned with the rock.

3. How much rock is okay? I know the general recommendation is about 1 lb of rock per gallon. As of this evening, I will have 70 lbs of rock and a 46-gallon tank. Given the price of live rock, I feel confident I can sell it the excess rock quite quickly, but I'd like to know if I could add ALL the rock to the tank if possible?

I am a very experienced freshwater fishkeeper, but this is my first venture into the intimidating world of salt water. I hope to make up for some of my inexperience with research and patience. Eventually this will become a reef tank, but for now, I am only concerned about the rock. Any help you guys can provide would be awesome.

-- Owenz

(On a side note - let me know if anyone in the Boston area would be interested in some nice freshwater community fish, available...well...tonight. Free.)

 

[sediener]

1. Keeping it alive outside the tank - will the rock be okay if I simply keep it submerged in properly mixed salt water? Do I need to do water changes? Is temperature an issue? It's my understanding that live rock is fairly rugged (as far as aquatic organisms go), but I want to do all I can to keep it healthy.

Add in some circulation (powerhead or airstones) and some normal output lighting to keep the algae and other photosynthetic critters alive. A skimmer wouldn't hurt either.

2. Adding the rock to the tank - it's my understanding that the tank should run for two weeks without anything in it, and rock should only then be added if the chemistry tests correctly after the two weeks. Can this process be accelerated by the addition of live sand (which I plan to buy)? How quickly can I safely add the rock? I'm going to take the addition of fish extremely slowly, so at this point, I'm only concerned with the rock.

Once your salt has mixed for a day or so you should be able to move the rock right over. If it is already cycled from the other reefer you should be able to start adding animals within a few weeks assuming all your tests are good.

3. How much rock is okay? I know the general recommendation is about 1 lb of rock per gallon. As of this evening, I will have 70 lbs of rock and a 46-gallon tank. Given the price of live rock, I feel confident I can sell it the excess rock quite quickly, but I'd like to know if I could add ALL the rock to the tank if possible?

whatever looks good to you. It really depends on how dense the rock is as to how much you will use to get the look you want.

- steve

 

[owenz]

Great, thanks so much.

Quick follow up question: how much damage is done to the rock when it is kept outside of a tank for an extended period of time?

My concern is that the rock has already been out of an ideal environment for about a week...and due to scheduling issues, it won't find its way back into a tank for another 4 or 5 days. The guy who has been keeping it alive is far from an aquarium expert (he's breaking down and selling his new 125G because "all the fish died" within a month of setting it up), so I'm somewhat concerned with how the rock is doing.

The rock enters my possession tonight, so I want to stabilize it and create ideal conditions for the 4-5 days it will need to remain outside the tank.

 

[sediener]

As long as the rock has been kept submerged in salt water and given some light and circulation/filtration, it will be fine. The rock doesn't know if it is in a 4$ rubbermaid tub or a 5K aquarium. If it has been kept out of water for more than a few hours, you will have dyeoff and will need to cycle the rock.

If the tank you are getting the rock from was only up for a month, I would be very careful about checking that it has completely cycled. I would also check if he used copper treatments in the tank to try to cure the fish before they died. Inverts do not take too well to copper loaded rock. The fact that he lost all his fish makes me wonder if he added the fish before the cycle finished.


- steve

 

[owenz]

Thanks for the advice. My understanding is that the rock has been submerged but probably has gotten minimal light and/or circulation. I will fix that once I get it tonight.

I was being a bit glib when I described the previous owner's experience. While I agree that the tank probably wasn't cycled when he added the fish a month after setting things up, it is my understanding that after the fish died, the tank continued to run for another month or two without the fish afterwards. Hopefully that extra time gave the rock the chance to cycle.

Assuming the rock hasn't cycled, I plan on taking things very slowly anyway. I just read the reef.org article on cycling rock, and I will generally follow what it says, regardless of the rock's condition. I'm going to approach this project very slowly.

I will definitely ask about copper tonight, however.

 

[Anonymous]

I currently have a Brute trash can filled with extra live rock in my fish room, for a couple of weeks actually!

I am planning on selling it as I have a smaller tank now, but have not got around to it.

I have the rock totally sumberged. There are currently two powerheads in there, circulating water all through the trash can. I did have a skimmer on it for a while, and I have done one water change with water I changed out of my main tank. The room never drops below mid 70's, so I didn't worry about a heater.

The rock is doing great and when I took it out of the trash can to take photos, it smelled fresh as can be. I do see some coraline algae loosing color from lack of light, but that will come back once it is in a tank.

 

[owenz]

A big trash can really is probably the best option. I can drop in the powerheads and maybe not worry so much about light, since it will be in the tank before too long. Thanks for the excellent comments.

 

[owenz]

Ok, I got the live rock last night. It was a classic evening of fishkeeping stress, with me picking up the rock in 3 coolers, going home and emptying my freshwater tank, somehow transporting the coolers/tank/stand to its new location in my moderately sized Accord, and finally sweating bullets as I tried to mix my first ever batch of salt water for the rock.

I'm now at work, trying not to sweat bullets over the batch of salt water I created (the rock is in a large plastic rubbermaid container). There was no internet access at the tank's new location.

So...real quick, I need to find out if I should leave work and go take the rock out of the water!

I mixed the water last night, first de-chlorinating it, then adding 1/2 cup of salt per gallon (as the directions indicated). The salt did not dissolve completely, so I left it over night. I also used a small amount of reef buffer, as directed (I received some instruction from the guy I purchased the rock from, who uses the same local water authority water). This morning, a small amount of salt was still undissolved, and the hydrometer said the water was about 1.016. I had a slight personal crisis at that point: do I leave the rock for another day in the cooler (covered w/wet paper towels) or do I place the rock in the water.

I placed the rock in the water. Hopefully this wasn't a huge disaster.

So...can someone give me some quick advice: should I be okay for the rest of the day or should I rush home and pull out the rock? It has been submerged for an hour or two.

 

[owenz]

Ps - there are two powerheads and an airstone in the barrel with the rock.

 

[Anonymous]

You are fine. Do not go home over some live rock in a tub.

The worst possible scenario to come from storing live rock in a tub is that you will get die off, and all that means is a water change or two and wait until the rock is fresh again, hardly a huge disaster. Which isn't likely at all since it sounds like you have nice circulation. If you get any scuz floating on the top of the can, scoop it out with a paper towel, the airstone might create foam, kinds like a weak protien skimmer.

Anyway, when you get home, check the water with the hydrometer again. You want to get it up to 1.025, which is what you will run your reef at. (Fish tanks can run much lower which explains why you may have seen lower numbers recomended) If it is too low, disolve some salt in another container, making a strong brine, and add that slowly. Take care to do it slowly (like ad some, go watch TV and come back and check it later) you don't want to make it too high. I suspect the rest of the salt in the can disolving will get you pretty close to where you need to be.

If it takes you a while to get your tank up, do a water change on the rock tub. That'll just help clean up the rock and make sure it is nice and fresh when you put it in your tank.

 

[owenz]

Awesome, thanks Laura.

I am going to fill the tank on Saturday and let it stabilize, then probably add the rock on Monday or Tuesday. I doubt I will need to do much curing, but my bank account demands that I wait a while anyway, so the rock will have plenty of time to rejuvenate in the next couple weeks before I add any fish.

 

[Anonymous]

Waiting is great when it comes to setting up reef tanks. Seriously a lot of problems people have in the new reefkeeper forum seem to be because they set up a tank and rushed into getting rock and a bunch of fish and corals in as fast as they could.

When I set up my first reef tank, I didn't know anything about curing rock or cycling, but I was so broke it took a long time to buy everything I wanted, and everything worked out great because I had to wait for each payday to get something new!

Your plan sounds good to me.