Live Rock

usc932000

Member
Greetings all,
I am in the process of prepairing to move in two weeks. I have given my animals and inverts away but I'm keeping my live rock. Whats the best way of keeping the LR healthy? I'll be moving towards the end of the month and will be at my new location the beginning of July meaning that my LR would have been out of water 3-4 weeks.
Thanks
 

crypt keeper

Active Member
it will be dead. How far are you moving? This isnt a bad thing. You can get new rock and will reseed your old rock and it will be fine in a few months
 

usc932000

Member
I'll be moving about 6 hours south of me to NOVA (Northern Virginia). I thought that would probably be the case (Dead LR), but wanted to ask just in case. Thanks
 

meowzer

Moderator
I think once it's dead..it is no longer LR....so it can't be dead LR....LOL...it will just be dr
 

loopy101

Member
im not totally sure but i would think if you could keep the rock in 5gal buckets or even a large clean garbage can with saltwater from your tank and keep a power head going and a heater you should be able to keep the rock alive. as far as the drive the water sloshing around would be plenty of movement just have to do some thing about temp if it gets to hot or cold.
i know there have been other post just do a search on it might have more info on it.
 

mkroher

Member
since you have no more animals and you're starting over, I don't think it matters if the LR becomes DR.
Put the DR in the tank after you move, and purchase a small amount of LR from your LFS.
Cycle the tank. Eventually your tank will be in equilibrium for it's current bio load (small bio load). Just because you have 100lbs of rock in the tank, doesn't mean you have 100lbs worth of LR. It's the amount of bacteria on the rock to keep your tank in equilibrium.
Think of it this way.. your tank has the POTENTIAL to grow bacteria on all that rock to support the animals you'll put in your tank. It's all about surface area.
Add the animals slowly.
 

jayson417

Member
Why not get a Rubbermaid container and put a battery operated air stone once you get to where your going put a submersible filter on it and keep it like that until you get set back up.
 

crypt keeper

Active Member
It is summertime. The air stone would help. If you keep the windows open the water temp in the buckets or container shouldnt get too cold. It can be done. Then when you get to your new home plug in a heater and get a power head in there. The rock can sit in a rubbermaid for a long time with a heater and flow. No difference than your tank. You just wont get much coraline growth with no lights.
 

truperc

Member
From what I was told by those that purchase this rock. The process between getting the rock out of the ocean and into the LFS tanks is not a nice pretty process.
The short of it, as long as you keep the rock wet you should be able to retain some of the live...in the live rock.
Wrap it in saltwater soaked towels or put it in some type of cooler with salt water.
If you add more bells and whistles to the process..great...less die off. (e.g. heater, flow)
IMHO I would at a minimum wrap them in saltwater soaked towels.
If it turns to dead rock....you have not lost any more then you were going to already.
 
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