Need Help

I went to a local fish store and the owner told me his Fuji rock came out of an 8 year old reef tank of his friend that is moving. Since this rock has been established it should not require cycling of a new tank and I should be good to go right off the bat. Does this sound correct? I am not expert but the rock is pretty darn sweet and covered dark marron algae and really nice shapes. He is selling the rock for 6.99 lbs. What do you all think? The rock was brought into the store on the 9/13/09.

One more thing he suggested not buying live sand in the bags. He said there is no way that they can keep the good bacteria alive as the water quickly goes bad killing most of the good stuff that may exist. He is a strong believer of leaving the tank with no sand at all. Here is the website: http://www.ultimateaquarium4you.com/ . The owner did metion he was a Marine Biologist and definately seemed to know his stuff. What are your thoughts on live sand purchased in bags?

Thanks again!

 

If your going to use it to start a NEW tank then no prob....BUT if you are adding this live rock to an already up and running tank then NO you would need to cure it in a separate container because there will be die-off.you do not want an ammonia spike..

I have used that bagged live sand and I guess it helped..just use reg reef safe sand..your rock will seed the sand in time making it live..

 

The rock should be fine. Enjoy it!!

 

Rock will be fine but you might have a small cycle, as for sand i agree with him on that BUT i think a reef tank looks silly with no sand so i buy the big bag of High desert play sand from home depot for 5 bucks and thats what i use in all my tanks

 

The die off in the rock can cause an ammonia spike and cycle. The amount of die off and therefore risk of a cycle depends more on how you transport the rock. If you can buy it in small enough batches to keep it fully submerged for the ride home.This way there should be minimal die off and you should not see a cycle.

I have added more live sand to my system numerous times and have never seen a cycle. In your case I would agree that you should not buy live sand. Buy normal beach sand and it will be seeded in no time. The main reason for buying live sand for new tanks is the dead animals that come in the sand. When you start a new tank these dead animals begin to rott feeding new bacteria in the sand and helping to start the cycle.

 

Hello Kelley, you weren’t descriptive enough to elicit an accurate response. If the rock came out of an established tank and has remained in an active tank in the shop, yes – you are good to go without any curing. If you want to know for sure, test the water its in for ammonia. Back in the day I bought rock from Dale Barger – man did I just pull that name out nowhere, its been years ! at Salt water Aquarium live rock, Coral, Best Cured live rock, Nano Discount live rock his Deco rock is beyond incredible, look at the pictures on this web site – because this is exactly what you get. This is $5 a pound and I have never in all my years found better product.

Sandless tanks are a preference – me personally, I dislike them immensely. The coralline growth takes away from the effect in no time at all. Bagged live sad goes dead? Sure it does – that’s why there is an expiration date on them. Flip the bag over and use your own eyes to draw your conclusions – I suspect you will see life. I used the bags in my refugium years back – the bugs that were in that fuge in a matter of days were plentiful. So I wholeheartedly disagree with the marine biologist. In the display tank – I think live sand is a waste, plain sand works well and is cost effective and will be live in no time at all.

Back to the matter – you should have no ammonia spike whatsoever. I suggest you do a water change and hold the water in a tub – rinse each rock in the old water to clean all the detritus out of the crevices --- if you cloud the tank with detritus from the “established” rock, you will get an ammonia spike. Please post pictures of your new rock when done.

 

+1 on everything you said!

 

Will do, I am going to pick up the rock on Friday (by then my tank should be set up and ready to go). I went ahead and purchased 39 lbs of it and if I bought too much I will use in my second tank I am setting up for isolating new corals/fish/etc.

Thanks for all the feedback, you all just saved me a lot of money on bagged live sand!

 

Kelley, not to belabor this but again I would like to questions the details. When you say :

Do you have a new tank that is currently cycling, just cycled or yet to begin ? Does this live rock have corals on it or is it simply coralline encrusted? I assumed by your first post that your concern of the potential of a cycle was an indication that you have an established tank or in the least a cycled tank. Please be aware, if your tank is not cycled or even mature enough, you very well may see some bleaching of that coralline and die off of any corals (if any)

I am so jammed up at work today otherwise I would search your old posts and learn your specifics.

 

There is no coral other then the encrusted coralline. I was questioning the opinion of the store owner who said if I start a new tank and place this 8 year old live rock in it my cycling time would be almost no time as the rock is cured and ready to go for filtration. While this sounded great, it sounded to good to be true . I will be putting the tank up on Friday and picking up the LR on Saturday (I will start preparing the water on Thursday). The owner of another store in town is giving me 5 gallon of water from their show reef tank.