Live rock question
- Thread starter tara527
- Start date
terminus est
Member
I did something similar with my 55, every two weeks I would add another big rock or several smaller rocks to my tank. I takes more time that way but you get to pick from several shipments of what LFS gets in and pick out several nice pieces instead of just one or two nice pieces and the rest so-so. I never had an issue with placing single pieces of uncured LR either. Usually my cleanup crew would flock to it and if they didnt I would relocate them to clean up the stuff.
D
daniel411
Guest
In another message someone just mentioned placing egg crate on the bottom to disperse the weight. Unless you have a ton of live rock, I think stability issues are more important to worry about.
krishj39
Active Member
The only way I'd be concerned about the amount of LR you have is if you have no substrate below it. If you have a few inches of sand or CC, you will have no problems with any amount of LR in your tank. The tanks can handle a lot of abuse in this way.
Cured LR means that there is no dead and decaying material in it. Some of the life in and on the LR dies off during the time the rock leaves the ocean and the time it enters your tank. The decay of all these animals is what causes your tank to go through a mini-cycle when you add un-cured LR. Therefore, cured LR is rock that has sat around long enough in a tank to have already gone through all the die off, and all that remains is alive animals. However, usually there is less diversity of life on cured LR because seldom is it cured in ideal conditions for the animals to live. By curing the rock yourself, you can take the extra steps to make sure as much of the life on the rock stays alive as possible. Therefore, cured LR is easier to work with, but IME, you will end up with better LR if you get un-cured and cure it yourself. This can be done in the tank gradually, if you have fish and animals in the tank already. Or you can put all the LR you will need in the tank at once and let the die off of the LR cycle your tank before you add any other animals. Or you can cure the LR in a separate tank or tub (large rubbermaid containers work well). All you have to do is drop a heater and a powerhead into the tank, and maybe a skimmer into the tank or tub and you can cure the rock yourself. That is the method I used. Also, I would take about a piece a day from the curing tub and add it to the main tank (since I already had animals in my display tank). This way I was able to save money by buying all the LR at once, I was able to cure it myself, and I was able to keep more of the life on the LR alive because I was able to essentially speed up the curing time by taking a piece a day out of the curing tub and into the display tank.
Cured LR means that there is no dead and decaying material in it. Some of the life in and on the LR dies off during the time the rock leaves the ocean and the time it enters your tank. The decay of all these animals is what causes your tank to go through a mini-cycle when you add un-cured LR. Therefore, cured LR is rock that has sat around long enough in a tank to have already gone through all the die off, and all that remains is alive animals. However, usually there is less diversity of life on cured LR because seldom is it cured in ideal conditions for the animals to live. By curing the rock yourself, you can take the extra steps to make sure as much of the life on the rock stays alive as possible. Therefore, cured LR is easier to work with, but IME, you will end up with better LR if you get un-cured and cure it yourself. This can be done in the tank gradually, if you have fish and animals in the tank already. Or you can put all the LR you will need in the tank at once and let the die off of the LR cycle your tank before you add any other animals. Or you can cure the LR in a separate tank or tub (large rubbermaid containers work well). All you have to do is drop a heater and a powerhead into the tank, and maybe a skimmer into the tank or tub and you can cure the rock yourself. That is the method I used. Also, I would take about a piece a day from the curing tub and add it to the main tank (since I already had animals in my display tank). This way I was able to save money by buying all the LR at once, I was able to cure it myself, and I was able to keep more of the life on the LR alive because I was able to essentially speed up the curing time by taking a piece a day out of the curing tub and into the display tank.
nacl-man
Member
Even with LR bought from the LFS be very careful adding it to an existing tank. Unless you live 5 minutes away from the LFS and they pack it in a bucket full of salt-water so the LR is fully underwater. There will be die off if you are traveling any further than that, esp if the LFS just wraps it in wet newspaper (which most do).
Creatures that need water to live that are left out of water = dead creatures = die off = mini cycle. Even with 'cured' LR. In my opinion.
HTH, which it prob didn't. You are prob even more confused now
Creatures that need water to live that are left out of water = dead creatures = die off = mini cycle. Even with 'cured' LR. In my opinion.
HTH, which it prob didn't. You are prob even more confused now
tara527
New Member
The advice did help. Also I am one of the lucky few that has a great LFS between 5 and 10 minutes away from my home. They are closed from now til October because they are relocating to a privately owned building about a mile away. So I am saving as much $ and doing as much research as I can in between now and then. One more question about base rock, is it known as anything else. I have not seen anything other than the LR at the store. I was reading on this site somewhere that someone had bought what they thought was LR and it turned out to be base rock, and they were charged quite a bit. How can you tell the difference?
michaeltx
Moderator
live rock should have coraline algae and living stuff such as sponges and things on the rock. if you look at the rock and it just looks like a rock the you are taking a gamble on hoe long is been in a system. and may or may not be bacteria covered rock.
here is a pic of a piece of LR from this site.
Mike
here is a pic of a piece of LR from this site.
Mike
jerseysaltwater
Member
mike - is that how the rock looked when it arrived? or is that what it evolved to under your care? my rock came with some red crystals scattered on it, and some scattered small colored sploches - purple, pink, and turquoise. I bought from another site, because I was able to buy a smaller batch (25 lbs) from them.
doodle1800
Active Member
SWF (this site) also offers 25 lbs of LR for about $110. I just received mine friday and I'm satisfied. So thats just over $4 a lb. No shipping charges either.
michaeltx
Moderator
no this is a picture that they have on the site. here I dont get anything like that good of quality. I havent ordered anthing online. but its actually a better way to order for the diversity that will come in on the rock unless you have a good LFS that gets the good rock in.
Mike
Mike