Live Rock question

[elvispresley99]

Hi there,

Brand new to this group, so please have patience. My wife and I started our setup of a new 180 gallon Reef Aquarium. We have had it up for about a month, and gone through the traditional setup, water fill, salt add, and so on. Everything seems to be testing out in normal ranges with regard to water levels, and temperature. We have a filter system that uses the "bio-media," and with nothing more than the water in the tank, I am not sure I would see much happening with the Bio-Media, and the sump.

So, we went to our LFS and picked up our cured live rock. To start, we have purchased about 65 lbs of live rock. A couple of pieces of Live Rock had a bunch of critters on them, inlcuding a Sea Urchin, and a plethora of mussels (at least that's what I think they are...but perhaps Boring Clams?) For the 1st 48 hours, all systems were go, and we've been monitoring the water levels for sanity sake. We haven't noticed any jumps in ph, ALK or Nitrites....minor shifts, but nothing monumental. This morning we were concerned when we found a couple of our Mussels (or clams) have detached from the rocks that they came on, opened up, and have died. While I didn't expect everything to survive that came, this concerned me a bit. Is this normal? Will these little clams / mussels all pass? Or is this something that I need to be doing to help these little guys along in this cycling process? We don't have any plans to add any substrate until we get the rocks cycled along for another 2 or 3 weeks. With that having been said, the purple algae is pretty strong on a couple of these rocks, and we have had just a very little amount of the exo-junk (dying stuff) fall from the rocks so far. I know it's early, but I want to make sure we aren't missing anything here.

I appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks

Elvis

 

[Anonymous]

Welcome to RDO!

I assume you are monitoring ammonia in addition to nitrate? During curing process, you want to keep an eye on all three nitrogen parameters (A/N/N).

It is normal for some die offs during curing, but you want to keep as much critter as possible.

Do you have a protein skimmer in there? IMO, it is better than any bio-filter (bioball, biomedia) esp. during the curing process. It remove the protein before it turn into ammonia, and alleviate the bacteria from overwork during the curing process. It is very efficient in minimize the die off.

Good luck and again, welcome to RDO/.

 

[elvispresley99]

Thanks for the reply.

At this time we do not have the protien skimmer, but that's on the shortlist of things to get. We are monitoring all 3 that you mention though.

It's maybe a little early to worry about it, but this is just so much more involved than when I set up my freshwater tanks growing up, and through college.....so, I am trying to be cautious and very patient.

 

[Anonymous]

Freshwater setup can be as tricky as reef tank too, but to majority of people, reef tank is more difficult due to the fact that most of them don't start with reef setup first.

One of the most important attribute of a good reefkeeper is patience. Another complimentary attribute is the eye to spot problem. I think you got both there.

 

[elvispresley99]

I will keep you posted. When I get out of the office today, I am going to "stare" at my new live rock Ahhhh, what a sheltered life I lead! 8O

 

[elvispresley99]

Well, no other mussels / clams have detached or opened up and died. Good news I think. However, I am seeing what appear to be white deposits on a couple of pieces of my live rock. I don't have a camera, but if one were to imagine this, it would almost appear as if there were sort of a "salt" surface formulating on the edge of the rock? Is that some kind of algae growing, or is that something I need to be concerned about, and yank from the tank. So far, it appears to be on 2 pieces of the live rock out of 6 (65 lbs total) They aren't large yet, but I do not remember seeing this this morning when I left for work.

180 Gallon Twin Overflow Towers
Bio Ball Filter down below (also two tower)
65 Lb live rock (so far)
No other aquatic life that we've added.


Thanks for your input!

 

[Anonymous]

Can it be coralline algae dying? They sometimes turn white when that happens.

 

[elvispresley99]

It didn't appear to be any worse this morning, and my water levels are balancing out to near normal levels. If this is coralline algae dying, what's the proper measures to take?

Thanks again for all of your input!