Adding live rock, when to and do I have to?

[JZ199]

I just recently finished having my tank all set up, all my levels are good.(salinity,ph,nitrate,nitrite,ammonia) I would have loved to add fish but working 12 hour nightshift I figured I would wait to add them until a day I'm off and can be around which is Friday. So I've had everything running and prepared to go.

My main question is live rock something that is NEEDED. I have read a lot online and always read tons of different things. I have no issue with adding or purchasing it. Also if I add live rock can I put it in after my fish are in without worrying about throwing off the levels, or is it something that should be added and cycled before fish? I know that it helps filtration and other things but I was just curious if it is pretty much needed to have a successful experience and if it can be added with or after the fish.

Thanks in advance.:nerd:

 

[Reefing Madness]

It shoulod be added or I should say set up initially with the new tank. Its a biological filtration system in your tank. Do you have to have it, well, it certainly does help an aweful lot, and if you don't have it, you need a large skimmer and a large mechanical filter to do all the water cleaning for you.
You don't need to get Live Rock, but can use Dry Rock to set up your biological filtration. But in either case you will need to put it in before your fish, Fully Cured Live Rock will only take a matter of days to set up and cycle in your tank, Dry rock on the other hand will need to cycle completely, using an ammonia source. If you do not get cmpletely cured rock, you will need to cycle that as well.

 

[Nurse Payne]

You can run a successful tank without live rock, however, the benefits are enormous. It depends on what kind of stock you plan to add, what your current filtration is (chemical, mechanical, and biological). Will you be running a refugium? Will your fish need a live food source? Will you have a skimmer? Corals? Sand bed?

You can always start it without live rock and add it later. If you do this, you'll need to cure the rock in a separate container (like a Rubbermaid tote) until it is completely cycled. You must do this even if your live rock is cured since transport will cause some die off. (Unless you get a large rock straight from a tank at your LFS and place it in your tank). If you have fish when you add live rock, you'll want to QT before introduction anyways just in case there are parasites or unwanted hitchhikers.

When I started out, I had crushed coral and fake decorations It's a learning experience. I upgraded and bought live rock afterwards and ended up with cirolanid isopods. I almost drove myself crazy trying to catch those little buggers! This time around, I started with dry rock from BRS, some live sand (bacteria live, not ocean live), and a cup or three of sand from an established tank.

Good luck and welcome to the obsession!

 

[JZ199]

Thanks for the quick and helpful response. Tomorrow after work I'll go and see if I can get some fully cured live rock. It sucks that there isn't anywhere who is 100% reef or aquariums and normally have to deal with pet stores, but I will try to find some. When I add it do I have to do anything special regarding my water, or just keep a close eye on my ammonia, and ph levels ect...

As far as knowing when it is cycled and safe to add fish I'm assuming that all the test levels will be normal with no big spikes or unsafe numbers?

 

[JZ199]

Thanks nurse! I like the idea of curing it in a separate container for now and adding it later. I'm so excited to finally add some fish lol. Right now I have a pretty decent skimmer, and a waterfall type filter. I have a coral bottom, and was thinking about adding some fake decorations for now until everything is up and running.

I don't plan on adding a million fish so I don't think things should get out of hand right away, for now I would just like to add 2-3. I guess I should add that my tank is 55g

 

[Nurse Payne]

Just remember that live rock jumpstarts your cycle. Did you add something (like a dead shrimp) to your tank after setting it up? Ghost feed (feed invisible fish to produce a food source for your tank)? If not, you've not finished cycling yet. How long has it been running?

Patience is key and I know the feeling of wanting to see the beauty of the ocean swimming around, but everytime I've rushed myself, it ended in disaster.

To answer your above question, all you need to cure live rock is saltwater, a powerhead, and a heater. You could do it in your tank with no fish, or a separate container. Good quality live rock has always cycled for me in about 2 weeks. It's pretty quick. I've purchased cured and non-cured. Both have to cycle and non-cured has more life (and pests).

 

[JZ199]

Oh boy maybe I'm not as ready as I thought I was. I have added some food, I don't wanna sound like an idiot lol but as far as the shrimp, like a small one from an aquarium store or something?

Thanks again for being so helpful, everything is so overwhelming. Of course the guy selling the supplies just pretty much said oh get the water temp right and add the salt to the right level. Which I knew wouldn't be that simple, but there's a lot to learn. I will probably get live rock and put it in a 10g tank if that would worth alright?

Sorry for asking so many questions but also what do I do to get rid of all the pests that may come along with my rock?

 

[Nurse Payne]

The shrimp would be a raw shrimp from the grocery store. Buy one you would eat you let it "rot" in our tank. It creates ammonia which eventually creates nitrite which ends as nitrate. Ammonia and nitrite are both lethal to fish. Nitrate isn't as harmful.

Some live rock has no bad hitchhikers and some does. You can always catch bad hitchhikers like gorilla crabs or isopods. You can kill aiptaisia anemones (you don't want them) or you can purchase peppermint shrimp (they eat aiptaisia).

The bad parts of live rock aren't so bad and the good it brings to your tank outweighs it.

I used a 20 gallon tote from Walmart to cycle my rock. You can use a clean garbage can, an empty tank, etc. just make sure it's clean and safe for saltwater.

No bother on the questions. Even the most experienced aquarist has questions. It's an evolving hobby. Always something else to learn about.

 

[JZ199]

Oooh ok, now I'm starting to understand ... I heard peppermint shrimp can be pretty nasty and go rogue sometimes, are they something I shouldn't keep around after it has been cycled and rid of pest and go with snails, hermit crabs ect?

I'm really torn now on adding fish until I have the live rock in there now :/

Everything tested 0ppm today, although the Ph was a little lower than it should be. If everything is testing good on Friday do you think I'm ready to introduce fish and start my live rock in a separate container?

I don't plan on doing anything extreme, I heard clowns are fairly hardy although I don't want to introduce them to an unfit habitat and make their lives less than pleasant.

 

[biomek]

Don't forget the consideration of putting all new fish into quarantine. I'm new to SW like yourself. I know you state your tank has been all set up and paramaters are good but how long has it actually been up and running? I'm on 35+ days of having my new 225 set up and running stable but personally I'm going to going to wait until 60 days minimum before i start getting fish ready for QT. I've got way to much money invested at this point to run the risk of rushing into this. My wife is going crazy waiting for fish and when i told her they will be in QT for at least 6 weeks, i thought she was going to divorce me lol. As so many others have said on R2R and other forums, slow and steady wins the race with SW tanks.

 

[PatW]

The advantages of good live rock is that it provides a whole spectrum of hitchhiking invertebrates that can prove very beneficial to your aquarium. The disadvantage of live rock is that some of the hitchhikers are unwanted .... Think mantis shrimp.

Dry rock is far cheaper and will convert to live rock given time and the right treatment. Many people start with mostly dry rock and add a small amount of live rock to seed the aquarium.

 

[JZ199]

I know what you mean bio, all I keep hearing about is wanting fish lol... I just need to stay patient though and make sure everything is 100% ready to go. Like you said, I would also hate to rush into it and waste tons of money because I was impatient.

I think my final decision is I'm going to get some live rock tomorrow, a little bit of that and dry rock and put it in my tank along with maybe a few peppermint shrimp and snails to eat some of the pests and keep the tank in decent shape? Is the dry rock fairly decent to get going as long as I do everything correctly pat?

I'm about to head off to work for the night, once I get there I'm going to start looking up some decent reef/aquarium stores that I can stock up at. I already know it's gonna be a bit of a road trip lol, the closest place I think is still about 70miles, besides local pet stores that just have 1 or 2 saltwater tanks in the back and tell ya once your salinity and temperature is ok to throw some fish in >.<

 

[JZ199]

I should've asked in my last post also, is a powerhead something I should have in there? I heard it's very beneficial to fish, also for creating oxygen, but that I helps with cycling the live rock as well? I noticed almost every since tank set up I've seen has had one so I'm assuming it's worth the few bucks

 

[gemini9]

About the powerheads, if you are planning to have corals, you definitely need something to circulate your water. Even if you go with fish only, saltwater fish are used to (and love) strong currents, from my understanding. You have to think, they come from the ocean and get swept around quite a bit with the waves and currents. They are used to this and will make them feel more at home. So it is beneficial to have something in there to circulate the water. I have a marineland Maxi-jet 400 in circulation mode in my 30g and works pretty well. I can also convert it and use it as a pump if I should ever need to. I'd recommend it. It's only about $20 or so.

 

[Carmen]

The other thing to consider is, if you go without rocks in you aquarium be sure to research the fish you put in there. Many fish need to have the ability to hide behind rocks if they want to--but not all fish need this. Or they like to perch on rocks, etc. As for powerheads, not only is the fish used to a sea current, having a power head helps keep oxygen in the tank. It's real important you understand what's needed for saltwater fish before you jump into this hobby. I know you're anxious to start. But maybe do some more reading here and in other forums before you start. Believe me, when things go wrong in a tank, and they easily can, that causes a different kind of anxious too--and not the "good" anxious. LOL