Can I add live a lot of live rock now?

[ngose]

I have a 55 gal with 25 lbs of live rock. The tank is new. (2 weeks) I also have 2 yellow tail damsels and 2 green chromus. I found a guy in the paper selling his tank and access. He has had live rock in his established tank for about a year. I'm thinking of buying 30 lbs of his rock. Do you think it will be ok to add this directly to my tank now? Will it kill my fish? Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[ginamoore]

did you say you've only had you tank up for 2 weeks and already have 4 fish in it?? i hope i read wrong. because i dont think your tank has cycled yet and you may loose your fish. altho damsles are hardy fish you should have wated untill your tank had cycled before adding 4 fish. or mabie one damsel if you were going with a fish in cycle.
about the rock. if the tank it is in is healthy and looks good i would say go for it. i feel you can never have to much live rock.

 

[ngose]

Yes, you heard right. I have 4 fish. I was told that they would help with the first cycle. I was also told they would survive the first cycle. Was I told wrong? What should I do now? Thanks for the help!

 

[ostrow]

If you add the established live rock, and some of the sand too, you may well avoid the cycle altogether. It's a good idea, always, to increase the diversity of the critters in the tank.

Make sure you avoid aiptasia or be prepared for a long battle.

 

[ngose]

Thanks for the info. Do you think my fish are going to make it?

 

[ste2k3]

if I were you, I would get those fish out and take them back to the LFS, you shoul leave the tank at least 6 weeks before adding fish. also, the lights should be off in this period. I don't think that thefish will survive, if you left them in but also, ITS CRUEL

 

[ngose]

Thanks for the info. How would you do the first cycle if you didn't have live rock?

 

[ostrow]

Put a dead shrimp in the water I believe is how people do it.

But with a good load of live rock and hopefully live sand, you may well
be able to avoid undo stress to the fish. Better is to keep them out, but
not all agree on that (and some get flamed on boards like this for that view ... be forewarned...)

 

[ginamoore]

i did a fish in cycle on my first 55gl with two damsels. my tank had been set up for 4 weeks with the lights off and i had about 25lb of live rock and live sand before adding the fish. my fish did ok didnt loose any of them. mabie my tank was in the last stages of cycle when i added the fish. i was a newbie so i had not a clue. I would recomend taking the fish back to your lfs to babysit untill you tank is ready. most places do that.
sorry for the bad news. do lots of research. and remember go slow very very slow. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[ngose]

Thanks for everything!

 

[Sher]

I would ask the guy selling the rock about how long it's been since he's had fish in the tank. If fish have been recent in the tank (say less than 1 to 1 1/2 months ago) I would hesitate to buy it. Can carry parasites, notably ich.

 

[ostrow]

Sher, you are suggesting if the fish were in it now that this would be less likely???

I'd not worry about it too much myself. Any time you buy something at a store you run that risk. And he's hoping to cut down on/avoid a cycle. If ick comes to the damsels, well, one they may survive it anyway as they are hardy fish, or he can treat it, or can in worst case IMO unlikely leave tank fishless after for a safe period.

Or could go the riskier route cost wise and add the rock and a cleaner shrimp at the same time. If the no cycle is realized, then the cleaner shrimp will take care of the parasites (maybe a cleaner wrasse too they are nice looking!!)

 

[Sher]

No, not at all. I am saying that if there are fish in the tank (the tank the guy selling the LR has) now or recently I would hesitate to buy the rock from him and throw it in with the fish. Take the fish out and cycle the display with the LR then add the damsel back in, great. By that time the LR has usually been fallow long enough to be safe. I just try to be careful introducing anything. Perpetuating parasites is absolutely no fun (read below *LOL*).

A lot of LFS(s) in my area are completely separating the fish and LR they sell now because of this reason (parasite transfer). Even down to separate sumps and refugiums for the fish and LR tanks. Are LFS in other areas not doing this?

I just had a go round with ich. Couldn't believe it. I haven't had ich in years and years. I recently moved back to the Seattle area from the east coast so I set the tank up new when we got here. Everything was going swimmingly and then I got the Royal Gramma. Lovely little guy that was being shamefully treated. Had him in with a bunch of Beau Gregory's. Poor little Royal had half his tail bit off and was stressed beyond belief. I felt just terrible for the little guy so I bought him. This was a Petco I was visiting picking up dog food. Don't normally buy fish from Petco, but couldn't resist trying to save this little Royal. I QTed him for 3 weeks. He was looking wonderful, tail coming back, everything. After his QT I added him to my display. About 4 to 5 days later, bang, here comes the ich. Yikes! What a mess. Had to hospital tank everyone and let the display lay fallow. Fresh water dips, hyposalinity, the works. My Coral Beauty got stressed in hospital and faded some. Worried me terribly. The Ocellaris pair did fine in HT and the Mandarin stayed in the display with the pods. My poor cleaner shrimp were miserable I think. No fish to clean in the display! They tried to chase the Mandarin around with no luck. He flat out refuses to suffer their attentions. Took weeks to lick the ich but finally did. I had forgotten how insidious and tough ich can be! What a way to be reminded!

Happily everyone is fine again and the little Royal is settled in just fine. What is the old saying? No good deed goes unpunished? *LOL*

 

[ngose]

Just thought I'd update everyone. All the fish made it!! :smb: I added about 30 lbs of live rock from that guys tank and it seemed to stop the spikes of my cycle cold! All levels are normal and I even got a tiny starfish and a colony polyp for free. (must of come on the live rock.) Evrything is great! We're going to wait until after thanksgiving to add anything else though, just to be safe. Thanks for all of the help!