Live Rock Question

[omega59]

If I buy liverock, do i need to keep it in saltwater untill ready to use when my aquarium is setup.. or i can just leave it out of the water dry?

 

[Truck]

when they bag it up or box it up, the rock will be moist but after 30 mins out of water you start to get die-off, where the bacteria start to die. but if you leave it in your tank to cycle the bacteria will soon grow back

 

[ben1987]

If you let it dry then it isnt live any more meaning you wasted all that extra £££.
As above if you buy cured rock try and keep it moist and only have it out of the water when you really need to

 

[omega59]

ahh i see. so it is probably best to buy it a few weeks before buying the fish then. see i'm thinking of buying everything slowly untill i can put the aquarium together and actually run it. thanks for the help

 

[IIITYIII]

you could buy the live rock get like a bucket maybe with some live sand put a bubbler in it and a heater to keep it at temp and keep oxygen in it and just let it run like that until you get your tank ready for it to go in. my friend did that it actually worked out really well your algae spike wont be half as bad because the rock will already have all the bacteria.

 

[omega59]

oh i see.

 

[kj23502]

I'd say you'd need a powerhead to keep it circulating in the bucket also. Not just a bubbler. You want to wait until you have no ammonia, nitrites, and low nitrates before you add any life to your tank (fish, inverts). Let the rock cycle itself out. There will be a little die off even w/cured rock. You lower nitrates by doing waterchanges, generally. The tank will take care of some nitrates in the live rock, but that bacteria is slower growing than the other...takes more time to do. Test with a liquid test kit. Salifert is best but API is alright to.

You could just save up the $ for it and then get it when you're ready instead of buying this way ahead of the time. You wouldn't have to mess around w/a bucket.