Live rock addition

[Poseidon]

how do you guys suggest i add 50 lbs of live rock i purchased off kijij
its actually dead rock because the guy left it in a pail of fresh water for the past 4 weeks....
i hosed it down and am letting it sit outside for now ....

but what should i do before i put it in my established reef tank?
and how long should i wait?

 

[unibob]

big rubbermaid, heater, ro saltwater(lower salinity I read is ok), powerhead. And then water changes and testing for the bad things like ammonia, nitrate, nitrite. Once ammonia is 0, slowly add it to your tank.

Someone else will pipe in with how much you can add, but I just did this with my 29 gallon and added a few pounds a week after water changes.

 

[Reef Hero]

big rubbermaid, heater, ro saltwater(lower salinity I read is ok), powerhead. And then water changes and testing for the bad things like ammonia, nitrate, nitrite. Once ammonia is 0, slowly add it to your tank.

Someone else will pipe in with how much you can add, but I just did this with my 29 gallon and added a few pounds a week after water changes.

Yes I agree, you would certainly want to cycle the rock until it reaches same parameters as current dt, but not in the same system! Unless you want to recycle your tank.....probably not a good idea. After that I would not see why adding one piece of rock or like 10lbs each week would be an issue. I would still advise you watch the tank params when adding any rock no matter how cured it is.

 

[Poseidon]

ok but what if its dry rock?
like this rock is DEAD.... or if i leave it to dry for a week... then its basicly just rock and if you put in the tank logically it wouldnt affect it...
or no?

 

[teebone110]

looks like you answered your own question ;D

if it is truly "clean" without any-die off, it shouldn't cause an ammonia spike in your system.

 

[reeffreak]

looks like you answered your own question ;D

if it is truly \"clean\" without any-die off, it shouldn't cause an ammonia spike in your system.

+1

if its alive thats a different story , rinse it down with rodi water and add half at a time to just be on the safe side and watch levels , no matter what you still want to add it slowly just to make sure nothing does happen , safe then sorry

 

[Poseidon]

very true...thanks for all the input
the guy i bought it from had it sitting in fresh water for months...
not sure why he did that, but its sitting out on my patio now in the sun drying off

 

[Krazykarl]

Fresh water contains high ppm of all kinds of crap. Phosphates in particular. Your rock will have absorbed all nutrients while sitting and will def leach into your system. Regardless if it dries or not. But on ye plus side, I've added like 80 lbs of rock dry and live from existing tanks into my dt without horrible things happening. Little diatom spike but disappeared on its own with reg maintenance. Just my two cents

 

[reeffreak]

Fresh water contains high ppm of all kinds of crap. Phosphates in particular. Your rock will have absorbed all nutrients while sitting and will def leach into your system. Regardless if it dries or not. But on ye plus side, I've added like 80 lbs of rock dry and live from existing tanks into my dt without horrible things happening. Little diatom spike but disappeared on its own with reg maintenance. Just my two cents

we were taking into consideration that the frshwater in there was rodi and not straight from the tap

 

[Poseidon]

ok well this guy wasnt the brightest and really had no idea what he was doing...
i traded a 52" tv i had for a 40gallon tank with 60lbs of liverock, pc light, and whole load of equipment...
he was selling it becuz all his fish died and he couldnt figure out why... well low and behold a skimmer wasnt present on the tank
and he didnt have any other filtration but w.e. the tv was worth 25$

anyways the point is the water WAS NOT R/O i can guarentee that... do you guys suggest i put it in a tote of saltwater to let it leach into that for a couple weeks?

 

[Duke]

imo throw it on kijiji and off it for 2 bucks a pound and do yourself a favor and go with the Dry Key Largo rock Incredible Aquarium sells for 2.99 a pound. its dry and comes from inland, looks awesome and is free of anything bad. i've added a bunch to my tank and had zero ill effects. the good rock you have now will make it all live fairly quickly. its a great addition to established systems with zero risk of something happening and taking out your tank.

 

[unibob]

I used some of that dry rock from IA, it is really light, used it to raise my existing rocks. It also turns from white very quickly do blends in nicely.

 

[Krazykarl]

Where was it referenced that it was rodi

 

[Poseidon]

reef freak mentioned it a couple of posts ago

 

[Krazykarl]

Oh I misread. You are implying the rodi is used after you bought it to cleanse it. I was referring to the way this guy originally had it stored in freshwater like you said. Was his rodi? Or tap?

 

[reeffreak]

Oh I misread. You are implying the rodi is used after you bought it to cleanse it. I was referring to the way this guy originally had it stored in freshwater like you said. Was his rodi? Or tap?

sorry krazy i should have explained my self more ,my bad  there was no reference to rodi , i just figured this guy knew what he was doing ..... if he was going to use just fresh water I would have guess it would be atleast rodi not tap :?

 

[Poseidon]

no he didnt know what he was doing... lol

 

[reeffreak]

no he didnt know what he was doing... lol

lmao.... I shoulda known from your first  post saying that  :? woooopsie

 

[Poseidon]

well that rock was boiled in hot water, then rinsed with a high power hose, then let sit in the sun for a week.... i added it this morning..
im going to keep a close eye on my phosphate levels to see if theres any leaching.. my phosphate is about 1 right now... ill keep you all posted

 

[Reef Hero]

Good luck! I am interested to see how it turns out....keep us posted.