How good is 5-day-shipped LR?

[bheron]

Some of you may have read my post about shipping problems with my LR. I know, my fault.
Now my question is: is this LR worht putting in my tank? It has taken 5 days to ship and has sat in Ohio, NJ, and now PA temperatures for the past few days.
I'm not worried about it cycling, just wondering if SO much dieoff happened that most of the cool critters and beautiful qualities that I paid so much for will be there?
Is it worth using?
(this is a brand new, 75 Gal tank with sump and fuge. after 10 months of careful planning its ready to go. I want to continue doing things the right, and best, way whenever possible).

 

[nas19320]

I hate to say it but I think after five days of the temperatures here your gonna have nothing more than expensive base rock. I had about the same thing happen to 45 lbs of LR. I still used it but it was pretty devoid of any life, just some coraline was left. It had a lot of die off and took a long time to cure.

 

[tarhull87]

Bheron,
I think that your live rock is gonna die off just about completely. Critical temp is 65 degrees(correct me if I am wrong) and being exposed to sub-freezing temperatures up north can be nothing but bad.
Also,
I just bought a 75 gallon pre-drilled tank and I want to set up a sump/fuge, can you send me some pictures of your setup or a diagram of how you ran the sump/fuge? And pics of your stand/canopy also?

 

[elfdoctors]

I think the rock will still be better than base rock as there should be pockets of life (particularly in holes deep in the rock) where, at the least, beneficial bacteria should still be alive. It will die off more but it should still be okay to cycle a new tank with (just forget about adding a raw shrimp).

 

[bheron]

thanks. that's whagt I was thinking. i would rather use the space in my new tank for 90lbs of quality rock instead of base rock.
The LR is on its way from fed ex this morning. Should be here today.
Tarhull87 - I dont have any pics of my sump / fuge but should eventually. I basically got my design from people on this site. Search in DIY for sume and fuge. Check out Broomer5's - thats the main idea i used.

 

[daniel411]

I agree with elfdoctors. Sorry about your loss. Will you be able to claim it on shipping insurance?
If it wasn't for the midwest temp.'s I'd say you'd be absolutely fine. Live rock is often stored and shipped dry from the collection point, to distributors, to lfs's. Which can take much longer than five days.