Using old live rock

chris0799

chris0799

Member
Ok I have about 80lbs of friend up live rock from my old 75 gallon tank that I took down. I'm looking into getting a JBJ nano cube for Christmas. What should I do with the rock now so that by the time I get the tank, I'll be ready to get started? Should I just put it in saltwater and do water changes until then? The rock has been dried out for about 4 months.
 
S

smallreef

Guest
UHHH its not really LIVE anymore..
SO what i would do is get a nice plastic trashcan, clean it out with vinegar.. rinse out many time..
get a powerhead and heater to bring it to temp and put the rock in with some correct salinity saltwater and GO..
you will need to put in a new piece of LIVE rock to seed it and if you would like to actually get all of your cycle done before you get your tank put in your live sand too... just keep in mind you will still have a few days of cycle if you dont filter this and ghost feed it to start the true cycle.. but yes you can do it in a trashcan before you get your tank.. OR will your friend let you use his vacant tank? (im assuming he tore it down which is why the rock got dried out?)
 
chris0799

chris0799

Member
Ok that's what I will do! Thanks so much! My what exactly do I need to do when I move everything to the tank? What do u mean by ghost feeding and what do u mean the "true cycle"?
 
S

smallreef

Guest
OHHH you need some books!
a true cycle is when you get an ammonia spike in your aquarium and then, due to the live rock and your filtration it balances itself back out.. kinda like the ocean after a large storm.. everything dead gets dredged up and smells bad for a few days but then goes back to normal.. this is what needs to happen to your tank/rock/sand before you add fish..
If you plan and pre-cycling your rock/sand/water before you get the tank you need to put something in the tank that will cause the ammonia to spike and the beneficial bacteria to get to work to even it all back out, we call that ghost feeding.. You would put a piece of bay shrimp or a portion of raw shrimp or a bit of flake food..
If you are doing this in the trash can.. you will need to do partial water changes every 3 days or so.. you may also want to have some kind of light set up to mimic daylight so that the beneficial bacteria has a chance to help..and it will SMELL but that lets you know that it is going...
 
chris0799

chris0799

Member
ok i gotcha...i pretty much knew what all that was but when u said cycle it in the trash can and then cycle it in the tank i didnt know if it was something different. so pretty much wht u r saying is that i need to cycle it in the trash can and then cycle it again in the tank?
 
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