Live Rock
- Thread starter shanedag
- Start date
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Well done. You are probably two years ahead of people who started with dry rock.
OP
OP
shanedag
Active Member
I can’t believe it’s been 5 days and I’m still finding new creatures every day. It’s quite fascinating. Found a second (larger urchin today). Also noticing more feather duster worms. I can’t tell what it is, but also this growth on one of the rocks.
MPCReefer
Active Member
Interested to hear about your tank setup in prep for the rock. Did you fill and test the tank then fill with saltwater before the rock arrived? Add the sand into the saltwater then rock placed on sand? Apologies in advance if you have already addressed elsewhere and I missed it.
OP
OP
shanedag
Active Member
I posted in a couple of threads as I’ve been learning and figuring things out
I filled my tank with saltwater and got all my equipment running and dialed in. Ran it empty for about 3 weeks while I waited for the rock and sand. This also gave me a chance to make sure my salinity and temps were stable. Probably took me longer than most to figure out the measurements for salt to water to get it right. Family was not happy staring at an empty tank and became convinced they’d never see fish in it, but Im glad it gave me time to learn my equipment.
During this waiting period, my tank did turn very cloudy. This is one of the threads I posted as I was concerned I had done something wrong:
Cloudy Water
I have a new tank set up with water only (waiting for shipment of live rock). It's been circulating for 3 weeks now. Turned on lights for first time today and noticed that the water was rather cloudy looking. Is this expected? Want to make sure it's okay before I do end up adding sand and rock
www.reef2reef.com
I emailed Richard at TBS (I feel bad as I’ve been kind of a pest and I know he’s super busy). Richard has been great though and responded quickly every time. Regarding cloudy water, he told me not to worry about it...it would all clear up.
Part 1 of “The Package” arrived in Portland, OR at around 6pm on a Friday evening. I’m about a 2 hr drive away so that wasn’t happening
I picked up the shipment first thing Saturday morning. I was a bit worried about leaving it overnight, especially as winter is setting in and it’s getting cold....was around 38 overnight. This did not seem to affect anything. The packaging was incredible and everything smelled fresh when I opened it up.I followed Richard’s setup instructions here:
Basically I drained about a third of my tank. I put the sand in first. Thought this would be messy but was really quite easy. I then added the rock on top of sand. Couldn’t see well enough to aquascape as things were stirred up a bit so I just kind of piled it. About an hour later things started to clear and I spread the sand more evenly and did the aquascaping (rocks on top of sand but I pressed them in firmly).
When I woke up the next morning, that cloudy water I mentioned was GONE...crystal clear water just as Richard said would happen.
Spent the next 7 days testing ammonia, nitrite and nitrate three times a day (morning, noon, and evening). At first, ammonia was hovering around 0.2ppm....it slowly crept up to about 0.8ppm. On about the fourth day, I noticed a white sponge was starting to flake off. Again, I emailed Richard...sorry Richard
Richard responded quickly and advised I scrape this off the rock and get it out as it was dead. He had warned me in advance that this sponge was unlikely to survive. I took the rock out and made the mistake of smelling the sponge...it was pretty terrible. Replaced the rock and continued testing.As of today, zero ammonia and zero nitrite. Nitrates are high at around 10ppm so I did a 25% water change. I’ll note that the instructions for the rock suggest to be ready for multiple water changes if ammonia gets to high. Fortunately this was never needed for me. The cycle time was incredible.
Only other thing is I did capture a gorilla crab and a mantis shrimp over the week of cycling. They now live in my sump
Now that I’m cycled, I’ve requested part 2 of “The Package”. Super excited to see what comes next!
Sorry for the length here, but hope it helps.
MPCReefer
Active Member
Appreciate the detailed response! This helps me tremendously as I am awaiting delivery of my tank (hopefully this week) and rock from TBS in the next couple weeks given better weather for Richard to fill orders.I posted in a couple of threads as I’ve been learning and figuring things out
I filled my tank with saltwater and got all my equipment running and dialed in. Ran it empty for about 3 weeks while I waited for the rock and sand. This also gave me a chance to make sure my salinity and temps were stable. Probably took me longer than most to figure out the measurements for salt to water to get it right. Family was not happy staring at an empty tank and became convinced they’d never see fish in it, but Im glad it gave me time to learn my equipment.
During this waiting period, my tank did turn very cloudy. This is one of the threads I posted as I was concerned I had done something wrong:
Cloudy Water
I have a new tank set up with water only (waiting for shipment of live rock). It's been circulating for 3 weeks now. Turned on lights for first time today and noticed that the water was rather cloudy looking. Is this expected? Want to make sure it's okay before I do end up adding sand and rock
I emailed Richard at TBS (I feel bad as I’ve been kind of a pest and I know he’s super busy). Richard has been great though and responded quickly every time. Regarding cloudy water, he told me not to worry about it...it would all clear up.
Part 1 of “The Package” arrived in Portland, OR at around 6pm on a Friday evening. I’m about a 2 hr drive away so that wasn’t happening
I followed Richard’s setup instructions here:
Basically I drained about a third of my tank. I put the sand in first. Thought this would be messy but was really quite easy. I then added the rock on top of sand. Couldn’t see well enough to aquascape as things were stirred up a bit so I just kind of piled it. About an hour later things started to clear and I spread the sand more evenly and did the aquascaping (rocks on top of sand but I pressed them in firmly).
When I woke up the next morning, that cloudy water I mentioned was GONE...crystal clear water just as Richard said would happen.
Spent the next 7 days testing ammonia, nitrite and nitrate three times a day (morning, noon, and evening). At first, ammonia was hovering around 0.2ppm....it slowly crept up to about 0.8ppm. On about the fourth day, I noticed a white sponge was starting to flake off. Again, I emailed Richard...sorry Richard
As of today, zero ammonia and zero nitrite. Nitrates are high at around 10ppm so I did a 25% water change. I’ll note that the instructions for the rock suggest to be ready for multiple water changes if ammonia gets to high. Fortunately this was never needed for me. The cycle time was incredible.
Only other thing is I did capture a gorilla crab and a mantis shrimp over the week of cycling. They now live in my sump
Now that I’m cycled, I’ve requested part 2 of “The Package”. Super excited to see what comes next!
Sorry for the length here, but hope it helps.
One thing that helps in my case is I can drive up and pick up the rock and save the overnight delivery time. I will plan to have things set up just as you did.
Glad you are happy with the rock and again, thank you for the great info. Keep the pics and updates coming!
