Live Rock thats been in storage?? Dead? Live?

[vetteman]

I am fairly new to saltwater. My brother in law gave me his live rock that was in his tank. It is Fiji rock and was covered in purple when it was in his tank. It has been in storage for 2 years now with no water. He said that everything would die on them and then come back once in the water? Is this true? Or is it dead? How long till I get some color?

Thanks

[Av8Bluewater]

When you put it in a new tank you'll need to seed it with a source of ammonia to get the bacteria growing on it. Use a dead shrimp or a damsel fish to start the cycle. Get some test kits... ammonia, nitrite, nitrate to start. When the ammonia and nitrite rise and fall the cycle is completed:
A Typical Break-In Cycle

The purple will come in time...usually takes months.

[trelane]

He may have enough dead bioload on those rocks already since they've been rotting in storage.

[sostoudt]

Originally Posted by vetteman

I am fairly new to saltwater. My brother in law gave me his live rock that was in his tank. It is Fiji rock and was covered in purple when it was in his tank. It has been in storage for 2 years now with no water. He said that everything would die on them and then come back once in the water? Is this true? Or is it dead? How long till I get some color?

Thanks

it wont come back like some kind of dinosaur plant ThinkGeek :: The Amazing Desktop Dinosaur Plant
everything that was alive is dead, im 99% sure of that. now its just base rock with dead stuff on it. but it will become alive after a month or so in your tank.

if by color you mean purple then no not if its the only rock in the tank. but it will get brown with algae and stuff.

[kathy]

I am sorry if the questions below are stupid but I am also new and trying to learn the whole process and this thread was perfect and pertained to my questions;

So from this discussion I have a question; I am going to add dead rock (used to be live rock 1-1/2 years ago) in my tank. From reading all the discussions I thought it all had to be nuked before putting it in a tank? If I do that, than what used to be on the rock will not come back naturally - right?
Or should I just wash off the rock and put it in the tank? If I do that then from what "sostoudt" said is that in a month it will come back alive? I'm confused.

Shouldn't "Vetteman" nuke it before it goes into the new tank and seed the dead rock with another piece of live rock?

[missionsix]

Beneficial bacteria that live on the live rock are what make it "live". Take any rock (whether it was ever live or not) and put it into an existing tank or a cycling tank. The rock will then colonize (or re-colonize) the surface area of the rock making it live rock (again). Porous rock is considered best because of the increase in surface area(where the beneficial bacteria live). So, live rock can actually be a ceramic shipwreck that bubbles from an aerator ,or, the scuba dive guy.

[vetteman]

Yes I would like to get some color like it was in his tank, which was purple. So your saying now all I have is base rock? That it won't come back into color like before? Or is there a way i could get some color in the rock?

[sostoudt]

Originally Posted by kathy

I am sorry if the questions below are stupid but I am also new and trying to learn the whole process and this thread was perfect and pertained to my questions;

So from this discussion I have a question; I am going to add dead rock (used to be live rock 1-1/2 years ago) in my tank. From reading all the discussions I thought it all had to be nuked before putting it in a tank? If I do that, than what used to be on the rock will not come back naturally - right?
Or should I just wash off the rock and put it in the tank? If I do that then from what "sostoudt" said is that in a month it will come back alive? I'm confused.

Shouldn't "Vetteman" nuke it before it goes into the new tank and seed the dead rock with another piece of live rock?

yes its bacteria that makes it alive. bacteria is every where. it wont have ocean creatures on those will be dead. but it will become alive because it will grow bacteria in the presences of ammonia, nitrite,nitrate. where theres food something will begin to eat.
it would really speed up the process if you buy a small piece of (fresh live rock, meaning from a active tank or the ocean). that small live rock will already have a good size of bacteria on it to process waste.

[sostoudt]

Originally Posted by vetteman

Yes I would like to get some color like it was in his tank, which was purple. So your saying now all I have is base rock? That it won't come back into color like before? Or is there a way i could get some color in the rock?

you just need to by a small amount of rock that does have the purple on it. the purple is a algae. the difference is that the purple algae wont come from the air like the regular brown or green algae

[missionsix]

Originally Posted by vetteman

Yes I would like to get some color like it was in his tank, which was purple. So your saying now all I have is base rock? That it won't come back into color like before? Or is there a way i could get some color in the rock?

Yes, all you have is base rock.
Yes, your rock will color back up with new coralline algae. However you will need to maintain the following parameters.Calcium, alkalinity and, magnesium. Once you get these parameters dialed in/maintained, find someone with some nicely colored coralline(at your fish store maybe) and request some scrapings/shavings. Seed the tank with them and wait.