50lbs of LR coming to my door, what do i do?

[Aquariust]

Hi all! I am purchasing 50lbs of LR from a person who put an ad in the paper to sell. He said it's about 50lbs, and it's been in a tank (30G i think) for a year or two. The tank has been neglected. 6 months w/o a water change. No lighting for the past month, and temps reaching 90 degrees at times.

Although, he said he still has a common clown, some hermits and snails still living in the tank. So I would guess the tank is slightly OK

I am supposed to go look, and buy it on sunday. What should I do? I was planning on getting a large cooler, and wetting all of the LR wrapped in Newspaper or brown paper. The trip is only about 45 minutes so it shouldn't be too bad. The fish and snails I have bags for. The snails and hermits are going in my reef. The clown is going into a 10G QT tank until I can find a home for him. He also has an unnamed hard coral for me too.

Seeing as the tank is in pretty bad shape, should I re cure all the LR? I eventually want to get it all into my 55. Obviously I can't just place it all into my 55. Should I put it all in a trashcan and see if I get any spikes? I have a second 10G QT Tank, and a 55G back up tank at my disposal.

What to do?

The deal he's giving me:

5 Gal bucket IO
Clownfish
Miss hermits and snails
50lbs of LR
Unamned hard coral
Miss aquarium junk

All for $125

Thanks All!

[golfish]

I would buy a new rubbermaid trash can and put the rock in with water. Then transport the rock back to your house and throw it in the tank. Why can't you place it all in your 55? Won't fit? The rock is already cured, if you keep it underewater you shouldn't have any noticeable die off. I see no reason to hold it in another tank unless its full of BAD algaes then I wouldn't buy it...........

I wouldn't worry too much about die off if you keep it wet.

Mark

[Aquariust]

Easier said the done GF

Bucket full of water will make my chevy be a lowrider She can't take it.

Why wouldn't you buy it if it had bad algae on it? Won't it ever go away if put in the right conditions?

I have no clue if it would all fit or not! I hope so. Wouldn't possibly produce a ammonia spike if I introduced it all at one time?

Should I put the rock in QT until the bad algae disappears. If there's no silicate, phosphates, etc... It shouldn't be able to survive right?

I figured for $125 I couldn't go wrong?

[mastaJ]

Why wouldn't you buy it if it had bad algae on it? Won't it ever go away if put in the right conditions?

Sure they will go away, but rock that is full of ugly algae wont have much corraline on it or other stuff, it will just be base rock w/ algae on it...;;

Wouldn't possibly produce a ammonia spike if I introduced it all at one time?

Not if you keep it wet, because nothing will die in transit, therefore no ammonia spike :eek3:

Should I put the rock in QT until the bad algae disappears. If there's no silicate, phosphates, etc... It shouldn't be able to survive right?

Why not just set up another reef tank

HTH

[golfish]

No, putting rock full of bad alage in a tank that's in great condition will make some algae grow faster, bubble algae comes to mind. I just got through tossing a very nice piece of Vanisi rock. I would take it out and clean all the bubble alage off and it would come right back.

If you don't keep the rock submerged in water you will probably get some die off. This will cause an ammonia spike. I wouldn't put it in a mature tank until I'm sure there is no die off.


Lets not jump the gun, you don't even know what's on the rock yet. If you do keep it in a holding tank you'll want to use powerheads and lights, maybe a skimmer if you have one. I have cured rock in a trash can with a heater, powerheads and a 65 watt LOA fixture. Don't let the tank get too hot.

Mark

[Aquariust]

"Why not just set up another reef tank"

LOL! Talk to my wife She's still mad I bought the 125!

GF, My tank already has some bubble algae What can i do to get rid of it w/o making it worse?

I have all thats mentioned except a second skimmer.

I don't think it's going to be fully submerged. Maybe some water in the bottom of the cooler, but most of the lr will be wrapped in newspaper, which BTW I have a ? about too. Why use newspaper? Doesn't the ink come off?

[hcp28]

well since there isn't any coralline on the rock and only just algae why not just let the rock sit outside until it bleaches dry and then all the algae will be gone. Just hose it down every couple days and then you'll have clean rock in a few weeks, ready to be colonized by your existing coralline. Well that was just an idea... maybe not the best choice HTH

Henry

[Aquariust]

he said it had some coraline, and some bad algae.

"Well that was just an idea... maybe not the best choice"

Thanks for the effort

[Ironreef]

under the right conditions bubble alga will go away. In my 55g it would come and go. Had it for months before it went away. Me personally i wouldn't throw away LR because of alga. I'm sure it had alga in the ocean? But fwiw my fox ate it all up

[Marcel]

I bought a used 53 gal custom reef system few months ago. It had a clown and Yellow tang. He had taken the rock out a couple of days earlier left it in closed buckets with wet newspaper.

I tossed the water moved the system to my house. Made new water and the next day put everything back in the tank includeding the rock and fish.

The rock had been out of the aquarium for 3 days (but it was wet all this time). It is covered with chicken liver sponges and hydroids.

Everything is still fine 7 months later, with virtually no die off.

I've also bought live rock with bad algae on it before. The tank was neglected and the rock was covered with hair algae. On top of that I moved the rock in a trailer in freezing weather over an 800 mile drive.
Needless to say, the rocks were cold by the time I got home.

Anyway, I left the rock in a trash can with water and powerheads to check for die off (regulating the temp) and after a few weeks set the tank back up, and put the fish back in. Also seeded the tank with some good rock. Now after 5 years the tank is doing good and the rock is full of life and coralline algae.

So if you can quarantine the rock because of the algae, then I would do so. But if your water parameters are good and you already have a substantial amount of rock in your tank and you can scrub the stuff off before you put it in your tank I would go that route.

That's what I would do. Do check my signature though.

[Aquariust]

Well everyone, I went to the gentlemens house on sunday as I said. The rock looked great! Lot's of it too. Some of it is from TB saltwater, and the rest is fiji. Definately 40-50lbs here. Theres still a few large (and 1 huge) piece in a rubbermaid container in the closet. It won't fit into my 55. Got a cup coral, zooanthids, open brain coral, yellow clownfish, and a couple hermits and snails. The rock has quite a few hard coral polyops, nice amount of all different kinds of shrooms on almost all of the LR (red, green stripe), and some caulerpa on some of the rock. Counted at least 10 bristle worms on the rock

There was lots of coraline, very little hair algae. No other bad algaes. Gave him $120! What a deal

Put it all in a rubbermaid container submersed. Brought it home, let it sit with lots of current for 2 days, and wa- la, no ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate spike. So I put some in today and yesterday.

The yellow clownfish is going into my 25G tank. So will some of the LR.

One problem! I still have 3 camel shrimps in my tank Hope they don't taste anything! They haven't so far. They're coming out in the next month or so. Let's pray.

Tell me what you think! Can't wait for the 125 to go up



Pic of 90lbs of LR crammed into a 55 Still got about 30lbs in a bucket waiting to go somewhere!









The LR had a good amount of macroalgae on it. I am going to see if I can get it to grow in my 55 to use in the sump of my 125.



My cup coral from him. I don't know if it looks healthy or not? Are the littlew dots supposed to comeout like polyops? The most they've been out is about .25"



Free Zooanthids from the guy! Actually theres about 2-3 other pieces of LR with small zooanthid colonies. This one is the biggest though.



Free open brain coral too! This one was a surprise. I don't know if it looks ok or not? I'll try and take a better pic tomorrow. Should they be placed on the sand? Or in the rocks?


Feel free to check out more:

http://defcon200.bizland.com/aquariust/id3.html

[Aquariust]

Some weird thing. He said it's ben dead since he bought the rocks 3 yrs ago?



Well he didn't give them to me, but I thought I'd post the pic bc I like it

[Marcel]

Looks and sounds like you got a good deal to me!

The polyps on the cup coral should extend after a while. Don't remember the exact husbandry. When the polyps extend, though, they are similar in appearance to the Zoanthid polyps. Also I do remember that the shape of the coral is a good indicator as to where it was harvested from. They recommend a piece that is shaped like a plate with a pedestal underneath it (It's easier to mount too). That's all I know.

[Marcel]

Oh, as far as the open brain coral, the conical shape of their skeleton allows them to lift themselves out of the sand when they get silted over. However, the varieties with the the red in them I think come from a brighter lit area than some other colors. So you'll want to make sure you have sufficient light for it. THey are not overly demanding though when it comes to light. I've had to keep mine on the rock midway in my tank, and he's done fine for 5 years now. Actually I saved him from someone else and most of the flesh had receded from the skeleton. But in time he started building a new skeleton and one piece that completely receded formed a new coral.

So I'd say they are pretty hardy.