New system live rock issues :)

[Gjinn]

Hello all,
First I would like to say thank you to everyone here at Reefs.org. This site has been absolutely amazing in the help its provided me setting up my first reef tank. The forums and library are full of awesome information! Ive recommended the site many times over to others getting started in the reef world.

Ive recently setup my 50 gallon acrylic tank with live sand and live rock. Here is my equipment rundown:


-MR500 trickle filter ( http://www.aquariumconnection.com/getDe ... p?ID=64972 )
this utilizes a micro-siphon box HOB. Also, a custom protein skimmer that sits inside the sump.

- 3 Maxi-jet 600 powerheads for circulation

- Hydor 150watt heater in sump.

- I dont have any serious lighting right now, Im actually waiting on my Aqualight Advanced Series HQI Tank Mount (http://www.aquariumconnection.com/getDe ... p?ID=64972). I just have a standard low watt flourescent bulb on there for now so i can look at my live rock. The light should be here this week(hopefully).

- 60lbs of LR/Aragonite sand. This is mixed about 50/50 giving me a 4inch layer.

- 50lbs of Fiji LR.


Parameters right now:
Ph : 8.2
Ammonia: 1 ppm
Nitrite: didnt test
Nitrate: didnt test
Temp: 78
Salinity: 1.022


I placed my live sand down and filled the tank with R/O water. Plumping and circulation was moving well, so I made my live rock purchase. Here is where i ask the proreefers here at reefs.org some questions.

Normally, my LFS cures their rock in store. Its about a 5 minute drive to my house, so I figured the curing process would be fine. My wife recently bought a 24g nano cube and brought home some pre cured LR from this same store. The LR was overrun with hitchhikers. Almost an hour after putting it in her nano we saw feather dusters, snails and even a small starfish on her rock, out and about crusing around. So, when I decided to order my LR from them they actually had a shipment just come in. I could save money by just grabbing a 50lb box right off the truck. Take into consideration that this box has been shipped straight from Fiji (im guessing from the shipping box) and hasnt been cured. Reading on the site said that this will be fine since im just starting my cycle, so i went ahead and placed my rock. I have a few concerns right now:

1) I didnt clean off any "dead" materials from the rock. My research has told me that the white clumps on the rock are dead or dying material that needs to be scrapped off. It appears I have alot of this. Also, I have some algae growth(from the looks of it, i think) that the rock arrived with. Do I need to take the rock out to clean it? Can I just do it in the tank? Should I use a brush or my hands to do so?

2) Maybe relating back to number 1, but i have no visible hitchhikers right now Im very jealous of my wifes abundant amount of little critters. Is this because of the dead materials on the rock? Will they show up after I scrub it? Could i just be unlucky and have none at all? Ive wondered if maybe her hitchers came from being it the LR tank at the fish store. I guess i could grab a couple more pounds of LR from there and get some hitchers that way.

3) I have some material setting on my sand bed that I think needs to be removed. Ive read here that siphoning the LS is a bad idea. How do i clean this material off the bed? Can I just do it by hand or with some feeder tongs?

4) My ammonia is sky high. I expected this a bit due to the LR not being cured. Am I running a risk of killing off the LR if I dont do a water change? Is there an ammonia level i need to look for before I do a change?


Also, any advice or comments on my setup/equipment is apperciated.

Again, thanks to everyone here that contributes to help us new guys become responsible and successful reefers. Your input and advice is invaluable!

 

[Anonymous]

Gjinn Welcome to RDO!!!

The first thing you must consider is that you didn't get "cured" rock, you've got "uncured" rock. The hitchhikers that your wife has, has survived the curing process and was probably seeded when it was put into the sales display. The things that make your rock "live" are inside the rock and not on the out side.

I placed my live sand down and filled the tank with R/O water. Plumping and circulation was moving well, so I made my live rock purchase.

This isn't a smart allic question here, but you did have salt in the water, didn't you? If you didn't then you aren't going to find any live hitchhikers.

That being said, (and either way) you'll want to do lots of water changes IF you want to save anything on the outside of the rock. If I were in your position, I would take a new clean soft tooth brush and scrub off what I could outside of the tank in a bucket o salt water. I would also remove as much as I could of what ever has fallen off the rock onto the sand. A power head is a good way of blowing things off of and out of the rock. Syphon up anything and everything that blows out after it settles. Do a huge water change. Repeat once a week or daily depending on how the ammonia tests out. That's how I cured my rock, but I sure others will chime in shortly.

One other suggestion I'd like to make, is to push your bottom rock down threw the sand so that they're sitting on the bottom glass.


Good luck unto you!!!

 

[Gjinn]

knowse thanks for the response.
Yes the R/O water was salt mixed outside the tank. Should have clarified that. And yeah I realized Im actually "curing" the rock inside the tank. I guess tonight Ill begin cleaning off my rock and relaying it as I clean. Wish I had done that off the bat but oh well, its a learning process Ill also place my "foundation" down below the sand bed. So siphoning the LS at this point wont cause any issues? I was concerned it would.

Thanks for the tips !

 

[Anonymous]

Naa, your just getting it going so syphon away.

I've made more stupid mistakes over the last three years including one that resulted in the death of 4/5 of my fish last week. Getting over confident was my worst enemy.

Yours is fixable at this point just takes more work.

Len, where's that welcome to RDO dohickythingy? I been doing this alot lately :wink:

 

[ChrisRD]

Knowse, if you click on "View more Emoticons" you'll see the banner.

Gjinn, :welcome:

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Chris!!

That was just to easy

 

[Gjinn]

Well I spent a very long time last night scrubbing my LR and getting quite a bit of dirt,algae and dead mats off of it. Alot of work! Im seeing alot of spots on the rock that are just white/grey areas, Im assuming this is the core rock that has not coraline growth on it. Hopefully the coraline will begin covering those areas soon.
Did a 50% change so Ill check my parameters again tonight. Still not seeing any critters in the tank. I guess Ill get the tank a bit more stable and grab some seeded, precured rock from the LFS soon. Thanks for the advice again!

 

[Anonymous]

Hey Gjinn,
How's the curing coming along?

 

[Gjinn]

Things are going ok, Im still cycling. Ammonia is gone but Nitrites are sky high. Im doing 10% about once a week and just monitoring params.

Still not one single visible hitchhiker in the tank. Nothings coming out of the rock, nothings grown and it appears that Im losing more and more color to my LR as the weeks go on.

Im going to wait til the tank is completely cycled and purchase 8-10 more pounds of LR to put in. Im going to get seeded precured stuff from the LFS this time so i can get some hitchers in there. Im pretty sad that nothing seemed to survive the curing stage, I just hope I dont have a pile of baserock in there right now. At least the dieoff has been useful for cycling purposes. Thanks for checking up on me though Knowse I apperciate it!

 

[Anonymous]

I really think your going to be surprised at just how much will survive the curing process. As your water stablizes, your going to start seeing pods. You may even start to see little tiny feather dusters starting to poke their heads up. Your coralline will start to regrow and so will some of the sponges. Just takes time for all of it to show back up.

A week after I got my rock I noticed that one of them started to move every now and then. Freaked me out cause is was about a 3" section of the rock moving. Turned out to be a clam imbedded into the rock but was it was a nice find. I also have these little clouds of dust come flying out of some holes, so I knew somebody was home in there. :wink:

Sounds as if your on the right track. Things will get better, promise! 8)

 

[Gjinn]

Just wanted to drop by and say that after 2 months my tank finally finished its cycle. I picked up another 13lbs of fresh, cured LR and relandscaped. I also picked up a brittle star and a few snails so things are looking great now.

Here is a pick of the tank(with its new light and rock)

 

[Anonymous]

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh!!!!

I'm so jealous of that 50!
The tank is looking sweet there Gjinn Have you given any thought as to what fish and corals you'd like to keep? With that lighting, your going to be able to keep just about anything you'd like. Oh, have you seen any new life show up over last month or so?

 

[Gjinn]

No idea what Im gonna stock just yet. Im looking at gobys, blennies, clowns and some diffrent pseudochromis. Gonna take my time and do my research. For now Im just happy to have a few critters roaming around. Ideally this tank is going to be for all types of soft and hard corals, thats its main purpose. Got alot of reading to do on those also

And no, during the entire 2 month cycle nothing emerged from my LR at all. I swear it was a total loss except for the very little coraline on the rocks and of course it kicking my cycle up a notch. I did purchase about 13 more LBS of really nicely cured and seeded LR that was covered in stuff. Looks like I may have a brown button colony starting and ive seen lots of pods and a few dusters.

thanks for your interest and help Knowse