Couple of ?'s

[dnj90]

Hi all,
Hopefully someone can help.
1- Just put a piece of live rock in my tank,looks whiteish,is this normal?
2-set up a qt and it is cycleing.I know everthing is supposed to spike but ammonia is off the charts(8+)is this normal too?
3- want to change cc to dsb as I said before the qt is still cycleing and no where near done could I add the sand with the fish in the tank?
Any help would be appreciated.Thanks

 

[mrcr4888]

The Amonia spike is normal even at that high.
If your live rock is white and it is real live rock not jsut a rock. I could have been left out of the water in the sun for a verey long time, or just in the dark for a while and all of the coraline and little corals died off. This is still ok if there is other LR in the tank the white piece will become more atractive.
Lastly I cant give you any ligitamet advice on hw to cahng your bed. I have had a dsb from the begining.

 

[mrcr4888]

O and goog luck!!!

 

[bwets_angel]

For the sand bed I was told by another member that they just scooped out the cc and replced it with the dsb while the fish were in there.

 

[dnj90]

Thank you folks for your help All help is appreciated

 

[trebor126]

For the DSB question,
I had cc, and wanted to switch to a DSB.
What I did, for a 55 gal tank, was I bought 2 - 18 gal containers at Lowes and and drained as much water as I could to fill the two. Put my PHs in them and transfered all fish. Took out all the CC and replaced with 120lbs of play sand, and seeded it with 20llbs of LS. Put a plate on top of the sand and poured the water back into the tank, making sure I poured over the plate. The plate kept the sand from stirring up in the tank. I put the fish in and poured the rest of the water in.
That was about 8 months ago and all is fine. Trites been at 0 ever since.
Not sure that this was the best way to do it, but it worked for me.
Good luck
Rob

 

[dnj90]

sounds like a good idea to use the trash cans.
Also as far as the live rock goes I'm almost positive the rock wasent that white when I put it in the tank.Could there be something wrong?

 

[clarkiiboi]

Does the white on the rocks look like coraline or as if something picked at the rock? I had both. Had an emerald crab and urchin that took off the coraline and left white spots/scratches, and also have a white coraline.

 

[dnj90]

no,There is coraline that i can see its the parts without coraline that is white,same color as crushed coral,I just dont uderstand. Maybe I should just give up on saltwater nand stick with cichlids

 

[clarkiiboi]

Never had CC, but I think its more of a tanish color, than pure white. If so, your rock is fine. The rock is just not fully encrusted with coraline......none of my 80-90 lbs is fully covered, some almost, but I can still see the rock. Dont give up yet...........it takes time and a little effort. HTH