Did not wash Live Rock...What should I do?

[Salt Daddy]

I know I am new around here but....
Seems to me there is tons of misinformation in the replies here.

Washing off the miniscule amount of bacteria that might be remaining on the surface of your rocks is not going to bother the bacteria living inside the rock one bit.

Also whatever minute amounts of chlorine/chloramine that didn't gas off if you did rinse the rock with tap water is not going to be the least bit detectable.

OP - don't stress - you are fine whether you rinsed your rock or didn't.
Go have another smoke and smile!

My man!

Thank you and bless up.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I know I am new around here but....
Seems to me there is tons of misinformation in the replies here.

Washing off the miniscule amount of bacteria that might be remaining on the surface of your rocks is not going to bother the bacteria living inside the rock one bit.

Also whatever minute amounts of chlorine/chloramine that didn't gas off if you did rinse the rock with tap water is not going to be the least bit detectable.

OP - don't stress - you are fine whether you rinsed your rock or didn't.
Go have another smoke and smile!

I agree, he shouldnt stress, probably didnt wash off significant bacteria, and probably did no harm for a few seconds under tap. But - he should understand that he bought live rocks for the little bugs and critters and sponges and stuff, thats what the money is for, thats what he washed off (not all, but some)

 

[ying yang]

Never heard of washing live rock before put in a tank.
I've heard of putting live rock into some kind of container or another tank and leave in there and check for unwanted hitchhikers like pistol shrimps / gorilla crabs etc so easier to remove or if rocks had any die off during transport so do water changes on Container the new live rocks are In if amnonia rose due to the die off

Been a few experiments on r2r lately in rinsing rocks with bacteria on to see of kill bacteria or not which it killed some but alot was surprised including myself didnt kill more off.
But where have you read you need rinse pure true live rock from the ocean?
Links to site you read it on maybe ?

 

[Salt Daddy]

Sadly, the advice came from one of my best friends.

He has kept saltwater fish for 10+ years and I have been listening to his advice....so far he has been spot on until now.

Notice though... I am also on R2R as I like to keep the flow of information alive and well.
In this case, I am so happy I'm on r2r and not just listening to one person.

 

[ApoIsland]

I feel like a bit of a dummy....

In my excitement to finally put something in my tank (Been waiting for payday to finally add in rock and a clown fish) I forgot one very important rule "WASH" your live rock.

My rock was in the tank for maybe 15 minutes before I took a smoke break and realized "OH FRACK!". I quickly took the rock out and washed it with TAP.


How screwed am I? Should I set the tank on fire and start over ( )??

It depends on where your live rock came from.

If you just went down to the LFS and brought some of their live rock home that had been sitting in their tub of water then you don't need to do anything before putting in the tank and adding fish immediately.

If you ordered live rock through the mail that had just been pulled out of the ocean, wrapped up, and mailed, then I would circulate it for a few days and then do a water change before adding any fish to the tank.

Certain organisms that were living on rock in the ocean will die when put into a tank no matter what. Add to that quite a few organisms will die once the rock is out of the water for a while. I like to circulate the rock in salt water and give things 3 to 5 days to die in those circumstances just to be safe.

 

[MaxTremors]

I agree, he shouldnt stress, probably didnt wash off significant bacteria, and probably did no harm for a few seconds under tap. But - he should understand that he bought live rocks for the little bugs and critters and sponges and stuff, thats what the money is for, thats what he washed off (not all, but some)

This would be my main concern. Bacteria (at least basic nitrifying bacteria) can be bought in a bottle, you buy live rock for all the microfauna, which washing in tap water would kill/wash off quite a bit of. There is undoubtedly some still alive deeper in the rock, but IMO it’s just washing off what you paid extra for, to say that it would have no effect at all is incorrect. I feel like there is a lot of confusion about what constitutes ‘live rock’, if it’s simply dry rock that’s been put in water and now has some bacteria on it, rinsing it would have a negligible effect, if it’s real live rock from the ocean (or been kept in a mature tank that has ocean rock for at least 6 months), rinsing it is absolutely going to affect the microfauna.