FAQ Purchasing Live Rock
- Thread starter mudplayerx
- Start date
airforceb2
Active Member
Not good...awesome. You never want nitrates in your tank.
f1shman
Active Member
almost scared the crap outtta me there when you said not good.. lol ya that tank has a pretty big bioload too, I'm sad because my lionfish is outgrowing the tank :scared: :scared: In there now I have a lionfish, two triggers, and a queen angel, a maroon clown, and a yellow tang. Yes I know these will all outgrow my tank at one time lol. Soon I'm moving the clown into a nanocube. The yellow tang maybe into my reef tank for a bit. And the lionfish and queen angel well I mgiht have to buy another bigger tank for them kinda soon, don't wanna get rid of them, there so cool!!
sankysyuck
Member
Originally Posted by airforceb2
Clowns, Chromis, Gobis and Blennies are good starter fish.
I actually think the Black Molly is the most hardiest. It is a brackish water fish but can survive just fine in freshwater as well as salt. It is an EXTREMELY hardy fish, when I cycled my first saltwater tank I actually had them all breeding in that toxic Nitrite and Ammonia high water! There actually still breeding to this day, I feed their babies (when they get to be a certain age) to my lion.
Clowns, Chromis, Gobis and Blennies are good starter fish.
I actually think the Black Molly is the most hardiest. It is a brackish water fish but can survive just fine in freshwater as well as salt. It is an EXTREMELY hardy fish, when I cycled my first saltwater tank I actually had them all breeding in that toxic Nitrite and Ammonia high water! There actually still breeding to this day, I feed their babies (when they get to be a certain age) to my lion.
hispaniola
Member
You've kept your nitrates at zero for 2 years?!
What kind of set-up do you have have and how much and how often do you feed?
Thanks F1shman.
What kind of set-up do you have have and how much and how often do you feed?
Thanks F1shman.
mudplayerx
Active Member
Careful with the black mollies in marine tanks. Then tend to be carriers and spreaders of ich and fungus.
sankysyuck
Member
I've been breeding them for years and no Ich or fungal problems yet.
atlfishes
New Member
This may have been answered above and I missed it, if so I apologize. I'm going to use uncured live rock to cycle the tank. Do I need to scrub it and cure it before I use it to cycle the tank. If not would I want to cure it after the cycle? Ultimately if I can't get all the bad stuff out by curing alone, is this done just to eliminate the smell? Thanks
adamc1303
Active Member
I cycled my tank in 24 hours!!! My LFS gave me live bacteria manufactures by Fritz, it is frozen. You wait for it to dissolve and put it in the tank with the skimmer and the uv sterlizer off. In addition they gave me a piece of their pad from one of there filters so that had bacteria on it as well. the tank cycled in 24 hours! Of course it wasnt as good as an established tank and I did not add 20 fish at once but I started with 3 yellow tangs one panther grouper and 1 clown trigger. They were all fairly large so they can you know excrete larger waste and they are all pretty hardy fish. All the fish made it with flying colors!!!!!! Great store I have near me they are really always on the ball!
mudplayerx
Active Member
24 hours isn't adequate time for an ammonia spike to even occur. I would get all your fish out of that tank asap. They are doomed when that ammonia spike occurs.
celacanthr
Active Member
3 tangs, a grouper, and a trigger all put in a 90 after letting it cycle for 24 hours!!!!!!!!! :scared: :scared: :scared:
how do you know it "cycled"?
how do you know it "cycled"?
hispaniola
Member
By Neptune's Trident!!!
24 hours?!
24 hours?!
dskidmore
Active Member
Originally Posted by atlfishes
This may have been answered above and I missed it, if so I apologize. I'm going to use uncured live rock to cycle the tank. Do I need to scrub it and cure it before I use it to cycle the tank. If not would I want to cure it after the cycle? Ultimately if I can't get all the bad stuff out by curing alone, is this done just to eliminate the smell? Thanks
Scrub off anything that looks dead, then put it right in the tank. If you know how to identify them, you almost certianly want to pull off any sponges, having been exposed to air they are quite likely to die. If anything else appears to die during the cycle, you can pull the rock back out and scub the dead items off again.
You don't want to scrub off anything that looks healthy. You may have some pleasant surprises on the rock! If you cycle a tank with live rock, it is completely cured after ammonia and nitrite have spiked and returned to 0.
Start your ammonia testing until you see a spike and a decline to 0, then test nitrite until it goes to 0. (If you're scientifically curious, you could test ammonia, nitrite and nitrate daily to watch the whole cycle.) At this point your nitrates should be high, do a big water change, and you're ready for your first fish. (And I don't recomend it be a damsel. Go straight for the clown if it's in your plan.)
This may have been answered above and I missed it, if so I apologize. I'm going to use uncured live rock to cycle the tank. Do I need to scrub it and cure it before I use it to cycle the tank. If not would I want to cure it after the cycle? Ultimately if I can't get all the bad stuff out by curing alone, is this done just to eliminate the smell? Thanks
Scrub off anything that looks dead, then put it right in the tank. If you know how to identify them, you almost certianly want to pull off any sponges, having been exposed to air they are quite likely to die. If anything else appears to die during the cycle, you can pull the rock back out and scub the dead items off again.
You don't want to scrub off anything that looks healthy. You may have some pleasant surprises on the rock! If you cycle a tank with live rock, it is completely cured after ammonia and nitrite have spiked and returned to 0.
Start your ammonia testing until you see a spike and a decline to 0, then test nitrite until it goes to 0. (If you're scientifically curious, you could test ammonia, nitrite and nitrate daily to watch the whole cycle.) At this point your nitrates should be high, do a big water change, and you're ready for your first fish. (And I don't recomend it be a damsel. Go straight for the clown if it's in your plan.)
D
damslndsrs
Guest
Hey I know i have seen this before, but can anybody recomend a good place to purchase live rock on line. I know the rules here so if anyone has some good ideas feel free to email me at mgarner_5@hotmail.com. thanks
carshark
Active Member
Originally Posted by damslndsrs
Hey I know i have seen this before, but can anybody recomend a good place to purchase live rock on line. I know the rules here so if anyone has some good ideas feel free to email me at mgarner_5@hotmail.com. thanks
this website....it is great quality and shipped great, and the price is good, the rock came with minimal die off. swf.com has good rock, its walt smith rock from fiji. I bought 50 lbs..
Hey I know i have seen this before, but can anybody recomend a good place to purchase live rock on line. I know the rules here so if anyone has some good ideas feel free to email me at mgarner_5@hotmail.com. thanks
this website....it is great quality and shipped great, and the price is good, the rock came with minimal die off. swf.com has good rock, its walt smith rock from fiji. I bought 50 lbs..
dskidmore
Active Member
Originally Posted by forcrz6
Mud you answered alot of my questions on LR. But my last question is this. If I get the rock from my LFS and I transport it home in a container that I have already prepaired w/ water what would be the cycle time and should I still scrub it?
Well, how much do you trust your LFS? Most of us don't trust our local fish stores. You don't know how long that rock has been sitting in the display tank, or what treatment it received before it went in.
Put a raw shrimp in the tank. Test daily for ammonia and nitrite for a week or two. If they never go above 0, and the shrimp looks nasty, then all is well; remove the shrimp and consider buying your first fish. If ammonia or nitrite do go up, then you are seeing a cycle, and you'll have to wait it out until they return to 0.
The rock only needs to be scrubbed to remove dead material. If there appears to be alot of healthy life, nothing dead, and no sponges, you could consider skipping the scrubbing phase. If there is alot of unsightly algae on the rock, that could be scrubbed off too.
Mud you answered alot of my questions on LR. But my last question is this. If I get the rock from my LFS and I transport it home in a container that I have already prepaired w/ water what would be the cycle time and should I still scrub it?
Well, how much do you trust your LFS? Most of us don't trust our local fish stores. You don't know how long that rock has been sitting in the display tank, or what treatment it received before it went in.
Put a raw shrimp in the tank. Test daily for ammonia and nitrite for a week or two. If they never go above 0, and the shrimp looks nasty, then all is well; remove the shrimp and consider buying your first fish. If ammonia or nitrite do go up, then you are seeing a cycle, and you'll have to wait it out until they return to 0.
The rock only needs to be scrubbed to remove dead material. If there appears to be alot of healthy life, nothing dead, and no sponges, you could consider skipping the scrubbing phase. If there is alot of unsightly algae on the rock, that could be scrubbed off too.
