live rock
- Thread starter fditty
- Start date
buzz
Active Member
If you just filled it, you can kiss "stable" goodbye. It still needs to cycle, and Live Rock is a great way to help that happen. I would highly recommend getting some now - perhaps even uncured.
You haven't added fish yet, have you? If so, consider getting them out, and adding a raw shrimp to help get the cycle going.
You should see your ammonia spike, then nitrites, then nitrates, When ammonia and nitrites go back to zero, and nitrates are close to zero, your tank has cycled, and then you can very slowly begin to add to the tank.
This may take some time to complete.
You haven't added fish yet, have you? If so, consider getting them out, and adding a raw shrimp to help get the cycle going.
You should see your ammonia spike, then nitrites, then nitrates, When ammonia and nitrites go back to zero, and nitrates are close to zero, your tank has cycled, and then you can very slowly begin to add to the tank.
This may take some time to complete.
bdhough
Active Member
If you can add all the live rock at once. It will save you a head ache later if you are trying to add live rock with an established tank. Not sure how big your tank is but you can get around 1.5 lbs in your tank per gallon. Thats a round number and it all depends on the size of the rocks and how pourous they are
steve40
Member
i had about 10 lb of lr in my tank for about 3 weeks and then the levels were kinda getting better, then i added about a dozen hermitts and 20 or so snails, couple nausarius and couple bigger ones, the hardy ones. as far as i know none of them have died and i just added 25 more lbs of lr 3 days ago, i dont even want to take out my test kit, but all the critters seem to be doing fine.
krishj39
Active Member
in answer to your question about if you have enough LR, the answer is: do you want it to be enough?
if you aren't going to do corals, and don't plan on using the LR as your primary biological filtration, then pretty much you can add however much you want. plus, you can always add more later, adding piece by piece and such, if you find a great piece at that pet place or whatever
if you aren't going to do corals, and don't plan on using the LR as your primary biological filtration, then pretty much you can add however much you want. plus, you can always add more later, adding piece by piece and such, if you find a great piece at that pet place or whatever
krishj39
Active Member
no, 45lbs won't look bare, but it won't look like the reef tank pictures you see on this BB. that will give you a pile in the center that comes close to the top, or come up about 1/3 of the way on your tank (assuming you also have a 90 gallon) if you spread it all out on the bottom. no, I don't think the 25lbs i have in my tank is enough, i'm planning on gradually changing it to a reef tank. that's why i have another 65lbs of LR in my basement right now getting cured. I just got 75lbs of LR this Wednesday, I added 10lbs to the tank right away, because I know my tank can handle the bioload of that much uncured rock at once. But the rest I have in a tub in the basement, getting cured, I'll add the rest of it in a few weeks.
krishj39
Active Member
do you have AOL AIM? my name on it is also krishj39, feel free to talk to me on there. otherwise, email me at kristopherjhoffman@hotmail.com and give me the name of the company you ordered from, just so i have more info to inform you with.
cured means that the LR has already been through the cycle and there are no dead animals on it. you can techinically add cured LR to your tank and not get a cycle.
uncured means that there has been no effort to biologically remove the animals that die during shipping from Fuji. uncured also means more bio-diversity than cured. however, it still gets more complicated than this. LR sure is complicated for a bunch of pretty rocks!
cured means that the LR has already been through the cycle and there are no dead animals on it. you can techinically add cured LR to your tank and not get a cycle.
uncured means that there has been no effort to biologically remove the animals that die during shipping from Fuji. uncured also means more bio-diversity than cured. however, it still gets more complicated than this. LR sure is complicated for a bunch of pretty rocks!