Hi, new to the forum

[netopr]

Hi i am new to this great forum.. I have a 50 galon tank that is kind of empty right now..... It has been running for about 6 months without any fish... and recently I added a percula, a blenny and an annemona.....
My question is..... Can I add some rocks straight from the sea ?
I live in Puerto Rico and there is plenty of reef around me...

 

[miaheatlvr]

Is P.R part of the US? im not sure, you better check your local willdlife and gaming laws. If legal that would be excellent, check you water levels after you add the rock.

 

[yogoshio]

I wouldn't suggest it. There's a lot of stuff in the ocean that is diluted in the ocean, but wouldn't be in a small tank. Not that 50 gallons is small, but it's small in comparison to the ocean as a whole. That, and you definitely should have had some live rock in there BEFORE you added fish or anemones. Do you have a skimmer? IS your sand live? Are you running a good enough filter? Although, once your tank is full of rock, a filter is really only good for flow and a carbon storage, but whatever.
But back to your original question (sorry, it's easy to get off topic), no, don't take rock straight from the ocean.

 

[thereefer9]

hi and welcome to saltwaterfish.com To answer miaheat question Puerto Rico is a commenwealth of the US. Ive always wanted to go there, great place. I wish I could get live rock out of my backyard.

 

[netopr]

My sand is live (i bought it), and I am running a big filter.....the readings that I am getting for the water are:
SG 1.022
Ammonia 0ppm
nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 10ppm
pH 8.2
I think everything looks fine since I dont have alot of fishes or any live rock. But I might get a better filter later on

 

[netopr]

so I should not get a live rock straight from the sea due to bacteria ??????
I have also seen thousands of different type of corals on the reef?
So what will I have to do, to get stuff straight from the sea ?

 

[thirty5]

I would not personally put anything like that in the tank right from the water. The waters are probably fairly clean but like earlier post said you are talking about endless amount of water to dilute any pollutants. And right off shore is the biggest area of pollution. If you were going out 100 miles then i would say fine. But i would be very careful. 1 dropper of pollutant in the ocean is fine. 1 dropper of pollutant in a 50gal could be history.

 

[yogoshio]

I didn't see you said it was a reef, I'm sorry. Yeah, if they have live, healthy corals and coralline growing then by all means yes! I thought it was just rock. But be careful, you might be breaking some federal laws, so check into that first. Or just be very sneaky about it.
To transport, just get a bucket and pick out what you want, throw it in, and take it home. The rock will be fine if it's out of water for an hour or so. If you want, throw some moist towels over them to help.

 

[netopr]

sweet thanks for the help.... Also, I have seen alot of carpet anemone's while snorkeling.... But when I try to remove them from a rock, they are very hard to remove and I just cant get them out... lol

 

[thirty5]

Massage the foot and it wll let go eventually.
Putting livestock i would say is ok, but i would still QT. I would still not put LR from the ocean though.
JUST MAKE SURE YOU ARE NOT BREAKING ANY LAWS!!!

 

[netopr]

ok, yeah I will make some calls to see if its ok to do so......
There are some animals like a carey which I saw one last saturday... Its a sea turtle that are very illegal to catch since they are very extinct.... The fine is $25000.. I know scary......