Purchased 100lbs of LR and Coral Now what?

[125intx]

I puchased a large about of LR and coral from a tank that was taken down over a year ago. The LR is no longer alive because it has been dry for a year. I washed everything off and have been soaking them in fresh water. What else do I need to do before I put them in my tank? I payed $30 for this and am guessing it weighs about a 100lbs.
Thanks
Chris

 

[black99l]

poke it with a stick . i'd say it was time to get some live sand and start filling your tank with water to start a cycle.

 

[jedininja]

From your question, I'm guessing you are new. What you have there is base rock since it has no life on it. I would clean it up by scrubbing it with a toothbrush or something to get rid of any grime left on there. As black said, add it to a tank, with some sand, throw in a raw shrimp and let it cycle. During the cycle bacteria will eventually build up over tha rock making it live rock. Then if you are going reef and have all the lighting and everything else you need, good water parameters, find a pice of cured live rock with nice life on it and add it to the tank bear some current. The coralline and maybe other stuff will start to grow onto your old rocks.
Good Luck!

 

[kdwinn357]

Black your crazy lol

 

[125intx]

Thanks for the info. I guess I should have given more info. The tank is not new. It has been setup for more than a year. It is a 125G tank and I have about 30lbs of LR, a green carpet, tomato clown, two trigers, two sailfin tangs, yellow tang and a zebra eal. Along with snails, cleaner shrimp, pepermint shrimp and some crabs. (better the tank than me) I guess I needed to know if it was ok to put the new rock in the tank. I do not want to mess the fish up or kill them. I am using crushed coral as a base not live sand.
Thanks

 

[overanalyzer]

I'd just use a medium scrub brush and scrub it off. Rinse well - repeat once and rinse. If the rinse water is pretty clear I would then start aquascaping with it .... good luck it should help fill out your 125 nicely!!

 

[marty]

be careful of putting all this into the main tank right away without it being "cured". In my experience, even the smallest rocks (live or base) that I have put into my tank have always caused an ammonia spike.
I would recommend that you cycle this new base rock with some tank water and sand and ?? so that it is on even paramters with the current tank rock. This way, you can (should be able) place the rock in the tank without much of a spike.
Get some more opinions here. This is just my experience.
Good luck!

 

[125intx]

ammonia spike? I would think you could only get an ammonia spike with LR, or something that is alive? I may be wrong, as a matter of fact I am sure I am.

 

[marty]

ammonia spike? I would think you could only get an ammonia spike with LR, or something that is alive? I may be wrong, as a matter of fact I am sure I am.
To further expand my train of thought, if you put a large "decorative" piece in your tank ("decorative" being ne of those things the wife likes - i.e. not live rock), this piece will need go thru a bacteria (??) growth. (probably not saying this right)
Think of it this way..... if you start a new tank with live rock, sand and saltwater from a previous tank, your tank is still going to "cycle" (or have an ammonia spike). The sides of the tank need to go thru this cycle process.
Hope this helps.

 

[lesleybird]

Originally posted by Marty
To further expand my train of thought, if you put a large "decorative" piece in your tank ("decorative" being ne of those things the wife likes - i.e. not live rock), this piece will need go thru a bacteria (??) growth. (probably not saying this right)
Think of it this way..... if you start a new tank with live rock, sand and saltwater from a previous tank, your tank is still going to "cycle" (or have an ammonia spike). The sides of the tank need to go thru this cycle process.
Hope this helps.
I don't agree....If you start a new tank with live rock, sand and saltwater from a previous tank it often does not show any amonia spike at all as long as the amount of bioload is not increased from the tank from which the contents were moved. I have done this on several tanks (going to a larger tank) without cyle enough (if at all) to harm the fish. I would think that you should scrub the rocks with plain water and a brush in case their is any dried stuff on there that would rot and cause an amonia spike. If they look clean, this may not be a problem. I would go slow and only add a few at a time and maybe throw in some cycle liquid bacteria to help to colonize them. Good luck, Lesley

 

[jbstuart]

I did this the only thing I found was an issue was a serious growth in brown algae. Since then clean up crew has handled.
thanks
Jarod

 

[overanalyzer]

Originally posted by Marty
To further expand my train of thought, if you put a large "decorative" piece in your tank ("decorative" being ne of those things the wife likes - i.e. not live rock), this piece will need go thru a bacteria (??) growth. (probably not saying this right)
Think of it this way..... if you start a new tank with live rock, sand and saltwater from a previous tank, your tank is still going to "cycle" (or have an ammonia spike). The sides of the tank need to go thru this cycle process.
Hope this helps.
I disagree as well ... I would also suggest not adding a large amount of ammonia producers (fish) right after adding the base rock thinking you have more filtration. It will take a while for that rock to become "live"
HTH