Anything alive on LR after 8 day shipping?

spanky

spanky

Member
I ordered some liver rock believing that the "shipping included" was overnight. Unfortunately, only the fish ship overnight...the live rock ships UPS ground. I called the store and the sales/order guy said "One day or eight days - the die-off on live rock is the same." Well, that sounds like horse-hockey to me.
The live rock arrived today. It looks great, no bad smell, and still lots of color. It looks like there was living coral and several - at least three - colors of calcareous critters on it...but I assume everything is dead after eight days in damp newspaper, right?
I've put the rock in a rubbermaid with about twelve gallons of water. After three hours of circulating the water, the NH3 is over 2.0....is ANYTHING alive on this live rock? If not, WHAT A RIP-OFF!!
 
pensky

pensky

Member
I almost have that same problem but I was just cheap and went with the ground shipping. Ordered last tuesday and just recieved today. The rock has lot of color and I found a lot of nasty goo that looks like maybe a starfish or something that died. I wonder if I would have went with the overnight shipping would some of this stuff still be alive and ready to go into tank?
 
spanky

spanky

Member
Mudplayer, you are THE MAN!!
That was a great article, and it could not have come at a better time.
The live rock I received was about 15%-20% black when I got it. It rinsed and put it in a rubbermaid with salt water and ran the heater and powerhead for about 20 hours. A few hours into the process I checked the NH3 and it was VERY high.
This morning I added about 20% new water and, five hours later, I had a two hour scrubbing session. I think I got all but the last three or five percent of the black. Some of it will NOT come off!
By the time I was done scrubbing with the tooth brush, the water was a nasty brown and smelled like a sewer. I rinsed the rock again, poured out all the bad water, and started out with 12 gallons on new water with the powerhead running again.
That was a lot of work. I hope I don't have to do much more of that...
Is SOME black okay?
 
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