Live Rock sitting around.....

[Lbannie]

So I recently bought a running 90 gallon reef ready tank. I got all the live rock with it. On the way home the rock was in buckets WITHOUT water. About 5 hours. When I got home I put the rock into totes with fresh saltwater.
I am waiting for a new stand and canopy to be built so the tank is sitting in the middle of my living room with totes of rocks. I don’t have heaters or power heads on the rocks and they are a bit stinky.
They’ve been like this 2 weeks now, and my stand won’t be ready for another 3-4 weeks.
My question is.... do you think they’ll be ok to put into the tank? Or should I let them dry out and pressure wash them? Or just rinse before they go into tank?

 

[Idoc]

The rocks are stinking because the 5hrs out of water has lead to some die off of fauna that was on the rocks. You are basically curing and cycling the rocks right now with that die off occurring.

I would put a powerhead and heater in the totes with the rocks...and perform 100% water changes every few days until the rocks stop smelling. You can also test the water for ammonia...that will tell you if die-off is still occurring. The good thing is that you probably still have some live bacteria still in the rocks, so the cycle shouldn't be very long.

 

[Quietman]

They're going to need to cure if you want to use them. If there's an odor that'll be biologics breaking down. Heat the bucket to 75 ish, get some flow and leave it for another few weeks. Change the water regularly and when there's no odor, no ammonia you're good to go.

That's assuming you want to keep whatever is on those rocks to put in your new tank.

 

[TheShrimpNibbler]

No, I wouldn’t finish off the rest of the life in the rocks. Add a heater and power head to the totes, and keep the rock in there until it stops stinking and ammonia goes down. You should do water changes in the totes though.

 

[KrisReef]

Did the rocks have pest anemones, turf algae, clove polyps, or other reef pests growing on them? If yes, then perhaps you might want to restart the live rock?


If the tank was fouled and growing lots of algae I would at least rinse or scrub the rocks and then put them in new water. Run these bins without light.

Test for phosphates to see how much the rock is leaching if any!

 

[ScottB]

All good advice to this point.

@KrisReef highlights an important trade-off that will elaborate on:

A tanks "maturity" is a much sought after thing. Can take a year sometimes longer. Live rock is the cornerstone of that due to the diverse and robust bacterial colony hosted on and within the rock.

But there some potential downsides of live rock that Kris mentioned. They can be managed or minimized -- but some take a bit/lot of work (aiptasia/palythoa).

I would ask much as possible from the prior owner about any previous infestations of those two. Also, if the owner EVER dosed Copper to the tank.

 

[Lbannie]

Thank you Idoc, Quietman, Shrimpnibbler, and KrisReef!!!
I think I’m going to go through the rocks to see what I really want to save....some of them are really ugly and solid. This is going to be my “forever” tank and of course I want it to be a showpiece!! I’ve never taken my time getting a tank ready and it usually bites me in the end.
I bought this tank kind of blind...just saw pictures since it was 3 hours away. It was running almost 2 years, but there’s not much corraline. Luckily there’s no Gha. I just sold my redsea Max 250 and the rocks were covered in gha. The buyer thought it was great. I really neglected that tank, but I wasn’t happy with it from the beginning.
This tank checks all my boxes and came with sump, skimmer and lights!

 

[Lbannie]

All good advice to this point.

@KrisReef highlights an important trade-off that will elaborate on:

A tanks "maturity" is a much sought after thing. Can take a year sometimes longer. Live rock is the cornerstone of that due to the diverse and robust bacterial colony hosted on and within the rock.

But there some potential downsides of live rock that Kris mentioned. They can be managed or minimized -- but some take a bit/lot of work (aiptasia/palythoa).

I would ask much as possible from the prior owner about any previous infestations of those two. Also, if the owner EVER dosed Copper to the tank.

Good point! I’ll ask the guy...
the more I look at the rocks the uglier I think they are. Lol
I have a few rocks in my temporary tank with my coral and fish that can seed new rocks.
Any suggestions besides Marco Rocks for dry rock? I do have a few of those dry to use as well

 

[TheShrimpNibbler]

Thank you Idoc, Quietman, Shrimpnibbler, and KrisReef!!!
I think I’m going to go through the rocks to see what I really want to save....some of them are really ugly and solid. This is going to be my “forever” tank and of course I want it to be a showpiece!! I’ve never taken my time getting a tank ready and it usually bites me in the end.
I bought this tank kind of blind...just saw pictures since it was 3 hours away. It was running almost 2 years, but there’s not much corraline. Luckily there’s no Gha. I just sold my redsea Max 250 and the rocks were covered in gha. The buyer thought it was great. I really neglected that tank, but I wasn’t happy with it from the beginning.
This tank checks all my boxes and came with sump, skimmer and lights!

If you don’t like some of the pieces, you could break them up and put them in the sump.

 

[TheShrimpNibbler]

Good point! I’ll ask the guy...
the more I look at the rocks the uglier I think they are. Lol
I have a few rocks in my temporary tank with my coral and fish that can seed new rocks.
Any suggestions besides Marco Rocks for dry rock? I do have a few of those dry to use as well

I love the caribsea life rock. There’s also a link on amazon where you can get 40 pounds for $80. I just got it and the pieces look great. The rock on reef cleaners looks like it would be good too.

 

[Malifry97]

If you don’t like some of the pieces, you could break them up and put them in the sump.

+1

 

[Lbannie]

If you don’t like some of the pieces, you could break them up and put them in the sump.

I didn’t think about that! This is my first sump....I went from hob to canister filters to aio tanks. Honestly I’m nervous about setting this tank up! Hope I get everything right so I don’t have a foood or something!

 

[siggy]

Clean and cure rock if you don't know where it's been.

 

[ScottB]

Good point! I’ll ask the guy...
the more I look at the rocks the uglier I think they are. Lol
I have a few rocks in my temporary tank with my coral and fish that can seed new rocks.
Any suggestions besides Marco Rocks for dry rock? I do have a few of those dry to use as well

I have 100lbs of the Carib Sea rock. Nice color, good shapes, but in my opinion it is really dense rock.

Marco looks ugly for a long time, but to me seems much more porous.

Personally, I would use as much live rock as I could find/afford.

 

[Daddy-o]

Get a bucket of vinegar, give each rock a 5 minute soak, rinse, and start cycling them in the tote.
Cheers! Mark

 

[Lbannie]

I love the caribsea life rock. There’s also a link on amazon where you can get 40 pounds for $80. I just got it and the pieces look great. The rock on reef cleaners looks like it would be good too.

Just looked at the caribsea rocks....so they’re painted?

 

[Lbannie]

Anyone ever buy from addictive reef keeping? They offer rocks that are purple or plain that look just like Marco rocks

 

[TheShrimpNibbler]

Just looked at the caribsea rocks....so they’re painted?

Yeah, they are painted, but they have bacteria spores in there to help with nutrients.

 

[Lbannie]

So I was looking through my stinky rocks. Lol
I see quite a few dead bristle worms and hair algae in spots.... I think I’m going to play it safe and get new rocks.
thanks for your advice!!

 

[TheShrimpNibbler]

So I was looking through my stinky rocks. Lol
I see quite a few dead bristle worms and hair algae in spots.... I think I’m going to play it safe and get new rocks.
thanks for your advice!!

This is your rock and your decision of course, but I wanted to let you know that both of these things will probably end up in your tank at some point no matter what rock you use. If you don’t like the rock, don’t let this sway your decision though.