Can I Keep Live Rock Alive?

[smudger72]

I have the offer of 10kg of live rock, but while I have a few spare tanks I have no skimmer.
Can I just put the rock in a tank(water already in it obviously) and will it stay good?
Or are there other things I need to do?

 

[Anguilla82]

as long as its got some flow over/through it, it should be fine.

 

[kj23502]

No, the good bacteria need something to feed off of. After the move and the small die off there won't be anything to feed the bacteria. Fish poop and stuff like that is what feeds it. At least in the freshwater tank. I would think this would hold true for any bacteria. If it doesn't have a food source, it dies. Well I guess there could be live forms that may produce waste on the rock, but again if it doesn't create very much waste, then the bacteria will die off and only what's needed will survive.

Is the live rock you're getting actually live rock from a tank and was in water? Some people call old dried out live rock (b/c it was once live) and in that case the rock won't be live anymore so there'd be no point in putting it in water.

 

[smudger72]

No, the good bacteria need something to feed off of. After the move and the small die off there won't be anything to feed the bacteria. Fish poop and stuff like that is what feeds it. At least in the freshwater tank. I would think this would hold true for any bacteria. If it doesn't have a food source, it dies. Well I guess there could be live forms that may produce waste on the rock, but again if it doesn't create very much waste, then the bacteria will die off and only what's needed will survive.

Is the live rock you're getting actually live rock from a tank and was in water? Some people call old dried out live rock (b/c it was once live) and in that case the rock won't be live anymore so there'd be no point in putting it in water.

Yes the rock is still in water, a friend of a friend is breaking his tank down.
I understand that in a freshwater tank that bacteria needs something to feed off but I didn't know is that was the same in a saltwater tank.

 

[Anguilla82]

if the live rock needs waste from fish, how come the lfs just have a load of live rock in a container on its own, just with a good flow going through it?

 

[kj23502]

if the live rock needs waste from fish, how come the lfs just have a load of live rock in a container on its own, just with a good flow going through it?

Probably b/c they're WHOLE sw system runs on 1 filter! Think about it. They wouldn't waste the $ to have a filter for each little tank. They probably have a giant filter system to filter the fw also. Next time you go to the store, ask them.

 

[Sea Turtle]

My LFS has all the tanks in the whole store hooked up to one system in the basement. The LR is kept in 3 large seperate tanks but they are ciculated together. Otherwise they would have to have a calcium reactor for each tank.

 

[kj23502]

And if they have a large fish section they may have an additional filtration system for each side.

 

[Anguilla82]

i stand corrected

 

[kj23502]

i stand corrected

it's all right There's no way for us to know everything. There's always something to learn somewhere.

Except maybe in Ski's case. He's the saltwater all knowing(and maybe andywg , lynden )

 

[Anguilla82]

so when you are cycling your tank, you put the live rock in, and get a little die off, but if you don't begin to stock the tank, eventually there'll be very little benefical bacteria in the tank, because there'll be nothing for them to live off of?

 

[kj23502]

Yep, exactly!

 

[Anguilla82]

so if you did do that, you would be limited to stocking extremely slowly so that the bacteria could multiply to accomodate the extra bio load.
so in eccence it is possible but obviously would entail drawing out an already very long process?

 

[FiSh123FiSh]

if the live rock needs waste from fish, how come the lfs just have a load of live rock in a container on its own, just with a good flow going through it?

Probably b/c they're WHOLE sw system runs on 1 filter! Think about it. They wouldn't waste the $ to have a filter for each little tank. They probably have a giant filter system to filter the fw also. Next time you go to the store, ask them.

Thats true because I work in Maidenhead aquatics, we have one massive filter. Along with £ the fact that would you want to clean out 400 filters?

 

[kj23502]

so if you did do that, you would be limited to stocking extremely slowly so that the bacteria could multiply to accomodate the extra bio load.
so in eccence it is possible but obviously would entail drawing out an already very long process?

Not really, depending on how long it was just left to sit b/c the inverts or whatever living on the rock won't have food so in the long term they'd prob die and then there'd be nothing creating waste and the rock would uncycle itself.

I read on this forum that established filters can double the bacteria pretty quickly(i think it was 24 hours). So if you have 2 clowns and you want to add 2 more clowns that'd be alright b/c the bacteria could easily catch up.

However that's a BAD example b/c there shouldn't be any more than 2 clowns in a system b/c of how territorial they are.