I bought 125 lbs. LR which arrived still in it's

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calvertbill

Guest
shipping boxes from Fiji so I expected a high die off. They were damp only on arrival. I put them in a 1/3 full 90 sump (off line) with good flow. Today is the 7th day and the NH3/NH+4 readings are still over 8.0ppm. (that's as high as my test kit measures)
1. Shouldn't the spike be moderating by now?
2. Can I assume they've done their worst and start moving them to the main tank? (2-3 each day)
 
I would think with ammonia that high anything beneficial left in the rocks is long gone, even bacteria...i would do several water changes to get the level down so the rock can start to recover. I would imagine that this rock wont be good to use in a DT for several weeks...
 

yosemite sam

Active Member
Originally Posted by Calvertbill
1. Shouldn't the spike be moderating by now?
2. Can I assume they've done their worst and start moving them to the main tank? (2-3 each day)
1). It depends what was on the rock. Did you clean it at all? The rock needs to be cured, which normally takes several weeks.
2). Is your main tank done cycling? If your main tank has fish and inverts and what not, don't put this new rock in until it's done curing.
 
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calvertbill

Guest
Originally Posted by offsetfactor
I would think with ammonia that high anything beneficial left in the rocks is long gone, even bacteria...i would do several water changes to get the level down so the rock can start to recover. I would imagine that this rock wont be good to use in a DT for several weeks...
I pumped out 80% of the water and pumped in water from the main tank alive with bacteria and whatever...we'll see.
 

m0nk

Active Member
Usually, when I cure live rock I won't let the ammonia get much higher than 1.0. That's all you need to kick off the cycle and for it to complete properly, yet it won't kill too much more off of the live rock. You basically should just do some water changes with freshly mixed saltwater.
 
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calvertbill

Guest
Originally Posted by Yosemite Sam
1). It depends what was on the rock. Did you clean it at all? The rock needs to be cured, which normally takes several weeks.
2). Is your main tank done cycling? If your main tank has fish and inverts and what not, don't put this new rock in until it's done curing.
Main Tank NH3=0, nitrites=0 has 80 inverts (various) a few polups and corals which seem very happy. No skimmer or filter, therefore no fish. I need to drill my sump for best performance from the MRC MR-4 skimmer and the old 75 I was using as a sump had tempered glass. Fortunately my LFS agreed to even swap me for a new tank w/nontempered sides.
 
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