Added dry live rock.....WHAT HAPPENED??

CSJIII · Nov 2, 2011

Long story short, I ordered some dry live rock from BRS, soaked it in RO water for an hour or so to get all of the dust off and put it in the tank. Here is a pic of the tank prior...

I went to bed and when I woke up it was cloudy but I had figured it was because of a little dust still floating around but just in case, I put some fresh carbon in. Then I came home from work today to find this..

All of my chalices, my bubblegum, my 45 eye miami hurricane.... ALL of them DEAD.
Could there have been something on the rock? My PH prior to the new rock would fluctuate between 8.1 and 8.3. Now its at 8.0 and going down after lights off. ANY IDEAS?? I will be testing my parims in a bit and also doing an emergency water change.

redddogg69 · Nov 2, 2011

Check for silicates and phosphates. Dry rock like BRS and Marco rock are notorious for leaching these.

pumarjr · Nov 2, 2011

+1 on leaching. A successful tank nuked due to dry rock. it's such a misconception that dry rock is safe to use, most use it without concern. I think Dry Rock is dangerous to established systems, as we have seen here. I'm sorry for the loss, a little more reading may have prevented the loss of some of natures finest. What should have happened for introducing Dry Rock into an established aquarium would have been to cycle the rock like normal, check the levels of the saltwater, once the si and po4 had dropped it would have been safe to introduce into your established aquarium. Dry rock still has organic material that must be cycled prior to introduction to your aquarium. I do not mean to come off as harsh nor mean, it's just a situation that could have prevented with some light reading.

Bandomo · Nov 2, 2011

That sucks! I'm so sorry! I was planning on doing the exact same thing until I came across your post. I'll definitely make sure to cycle the rocks before adding to the display. I would recommend starting small consistent water changes asap!

Reef Pets · Nov 2, 2011

I hate to see such a loss! Dry rock has to be cured over a 2 - 4 week period of time or how ever long it takes to show stable water conditions. As stated above it probably leached phosphates and/or caused a huge ph swing.

CSJIII · Nov 2, 2011

Results are back....

Cal 340
PH is stable at 8.0
KH is 10.5

CSJIII · Nov 2, 2011

pumarjr said:
+1 on leaching. A successful tank nuked due to dry rock. it's such a misconception that dry rock is safe to use, most use it without concern. I think Dry Rock is dangerous to established systems, as we have seen here. I'm sorry for the loss, a little more reading may have prevented the loss of some of natures finest. What should have happened for introducing Dry Rock into an established aquarium would have been to cycle the rock like normal, check the levels of the saltwater, once the si and po4 had dropped it would have been safe to introduce into your established aquarium. Dry rock still has organic material that must be cycled prior to introduction to your aquarium. I do not mean to come off as harsh nor mean, it's just a situation that could have prevented with some light reading.

I did do some reading prior to putting it in and everything I saw said just to rinse it off to remove any dust and drop it in. I read "You can wash it off in some ro/di water. Give it a good shake or two in a tub of water. It should be just fine. I would wash it off just to get any loose particles off of it. The dry rock isn't going to cause a cycle or anything. "......

Should I take it out right now????

subielover · Nov 2, 2011

Yes take it out and cycle it.

CSJIII · Nov 2, 2011

I ripped the dry rock out and did a quick water change. I thought I had read far enough about just washing it off and putting it in. This is a serious blow to me and to my tank!

pumarjr · Nov 3, 2011

The "just rise and shake method" is fine for a new tank that has no critters or fish.

pumarjr · Nov 3, 2011

Also, leave the skeletons in there, they may return.

ToXIc · Nov 3, 2011

wow.. thats messed up.. sorry for your loss..

but on another note.. please take that tang out before the tang police shows up..

pumarjr · Nov 3, 2011

Lol, yes. The tang police.

kuyatwo · Nov 3, 2011

Why is your ca so low 340 seems awfully low.

I added 25% more rock to my tank all of it was dry rock from my old tank. I did acid wash it before hand and let it air dry for a week. My tank never went through a mini cycle.

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kuyatwo · Nov 3, 2011

Even if it was leaching phosphates or nitrates you would think all that gha would be eating it all up.

What wass your skimmer pulling out before the die off when it was cloudy

LegoZ81 · Nov 3, 2011

The is cloudy tank is most likely the result of a bateria bloom b/c of the ammonia, that will drop the disolved o2 in the tank with the lights off as it is burning up o2 and releasing co2.
Get ammonia down asap or dieoff will continue and you could starve the tank of o2 with lights off and loose fish.
Also 1ppm is enough to start having fish loses.
This is really really awful

+1 for leaving in the skeletons for some time you might get lucky.

Spsfan · Nov 3, 2011

sorry about the tank

But I'm glad you posted this cause I've been thinking about doing the same thing

shred5 · Nov 3, 2011

Leeching phosphates just overnight is not going to cause this, something else happened here. You also are not going to have instant ammonia from dried live rock, it will take time to break down.

I bleach any dead rock I use for several days to prevent this, I then soak in dechlorinator for a few days and rinse well and then let dry. This will oxidize anything in the rock.

Looks like you have a lot of palythoa or zoas., did you cover them up they can be toxic? Did something get disturbed?

Dave Polzin

nixer · Nov 3, 2011

never have i ever seen just a quick soak and put it in a stocked tank!

CSJIII · Nov 3, 2011

pumarjr said:
The "just rise and shake method" is fine for a new tank that has no critters or fish.

I usually read in depth before I make a move and I did a few searches for "adding dry rock" and read about 4 threads saying, Go ahead and add it after you rinse it. Not the case here but it may be something else. I may have covered some zoas.

ToXIc said:
wow.. thats messed up.. sorry for your loss..

but on another note.. please take that tang out before the tang police shows up..

Thank you. And I just had everything going so well! I had everything in order...things were growing...I got 3 pumps from BRS (along with the 3 lbs of dry rock) for kalk and my 2 part so I could get everything dialed in perfect. Then this major setback! And yes, the tang was removed!

kuyatwo said:
Even if it was leaching phosphates or nitrates you would think all that gha would be eating it all up.

What wass your skimmer pulling out before the die off when it was cloudy

My skimmer was working ok. I have a Tunze 9002 in the back of my JBJ 28. It was pulling out gunk.

LegoZ81 said:
The is cloudy tank is most likely the result of a bateria bloom b/c of the ammonia, that will drop the disolved o2 in the tank with the lights off as it is burning up o2 and releasing co2.
Get ammonia down asap or dieoff will continue and you could starve the tank of o2 with lights off and loose fish.
Also 1ppm is enough to start having fish loses.
This is really really awful
+1 for leaving in the skeletons for some time you might get lucky.

As for the co2, could that be why my ph has dropped below 8.0? Can I add a stone or something to get the o2 back up? I did do a water change and will do another this evening. It is still cloudy this morning.

Spsfan said:
But I'm glad you posted this cause I've been thinking about doing the same thing

If someone can learn from this disaster, all the better! Hopefully in the future, someone, just like I did, do a search for "adding dry rock" and com upon this thread and avert disaster!

shred5 said:
Leeching phosphates just overnight is not going to cause this, something else happened here. You also are not going to have instant ammonia from dried live rock, it will take time to break down.

I bleach any dead rock I use for several days to prevent this, I then soak in dechlorinator for a few days and rinse well and then let dry. This will oxidize anything in the rock.

Looks like you have a lot of palythoa or zoas., did you cover them up they can be toxic? Did something get disturbed?

Dave Polzin

I did move a few pieces of rock in order to get the new rock to sit right. I may have accidentally covered part of a rock that i had some palys on. With seeing these threads, I am now thinking that it may be a partial cause of this. There may be a high amount of toxins in the small system that I have. IF that is the case, what to do? Water changes? And if the o2 has dropped cause if it, would that cause my ph to be low AND cause the o2 to be low?