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Need some help on dying live rocks

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brucieK

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Hi folks, yesterday I got some premium aquacultured live rock shipped overnight to me in water. I found some live crabs, trochus snails, feather dusters and worms on the rocks.

These rocks are pretty expensive (15lbs for $260) and I put them in a 10 gallon tank with air pump, waver maker, a heater and a Kessil 60 to provide 5 hours of gentle light. I have a few questions:

1. After 12 hours in my quarantine tank, I noticed some die-offs, including feather dusters, a variety of worms and pods with their dead body circulating in the water column, and the ammonia level is shooting 1 ppm even after 100% water change. What should I do to maximize the survival of all the lives on the rock? I tried to rub a died sponge / coral off the rock but failed, only creating a massive amount of mucus.

2. This live rock is about 15 lbs, and I have 40 lbs pound of dry rock in an established tank for about 6 months. How likely will the beneficial bacteria and other species on my new live rock be outcompeted by the existing algae/bacteria in my established system? I've heard people typically use quality live rock to seed new systems, not established ones.

Thanks!
 

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Coral reefer said:
Im so confused. What are you trying to accomplish with the $17/# premium rock? What makes it premium?
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The goal is to boost the bio diversity in my existing system. The rock is freshly harvested from the ocean and shipped overnight in water by KP aquatics. Unfortunately a lot of the hitchhikers didn't survive the shipping. I guess the premium price is largely due to the high shipping cost during Covid.
 
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Unless the rocks were shipped in water, like fish, expect die off. Wet newspaper will be OK for bacteria, but not the larger life forms.

A lot of people do not really add truly "live" live rock to tanks because you never know what is living on or in them.

If your theory is to use it to seed your tank will all sorts of new fauna, and you know the risks, there
is really only one thing to do: Rinse with salt water, then dump it in the display tank.
You should then monitor ammonia in DT, and chemically neutralize it if it spikes.
 
rygh said:
Unless the rocks were shipped in water, like fish, expect die off. Wet newspaper will be OK for bacteria, but not the larger life forms.

A lot of people do not really add truly "live" live rock to tanks because you never know what is living on or in them.

If your theory is to use it to seed your tank will all sorts of new fauna, and you know the risks, there
is really only one thing to do: Rinse with salt water, then dump it in the display tank.
You should then monitor ammonia in DT, and chemically neutralize it if it spikes.
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Thanks for the feedback. Yes the rocks were shipped in water, and I was surprised to see a lot of die offs after putting them in my quarantine tank for 12 hours. I'm planning to quarantine these rocks at least for 4 weeks to get rid of unwanted pests and fish parasites.

All my systems are 100% free of parasites and coral pests, so I'm a bit nervous introducing these live rocks.
 
I don't know what else you can do really. Do water changes to keep the ammonia from the dieoff down, so it doesn't continue to kill more things I suppose.
 
The same conditions that kill pests are going to kill beneficial micro organisms.

What specifically were you trying to get? There are a lot of live culture bacteria available and a lot of critters and microfauna available from different retailers.

Are the risks worth the gain? Do you have any control of what you're introducing in this scenario?
 
grizfyrfyter said:
The same conditions that kill pests are going to kill beneficial micro organisms.

What specifically were you trying to get? There are a lot of live culture bacteria available and a lot of critters and microfauna available from different retailers.

Are the risks worth the gain? Do you have any control of what you're introducing in this scenario?
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Real live rock freshly harvested from the ocean contains so much more than a bottle of nitrifying bacteria such as Microbacter7 or other supplement products can offer. Had I have the opportunity to start over again, I would have never only used dry rocks to set up a tank. Regarding the risk, I guess I will have to take the time to observe the rocks, trap unwanted critters and identify pests such as nudi, aiptasia and flatworms.
 
Agree with multiple 100% water changes until the die-off stops. You can dose with tiny amounts of Prime to temporarily make the ammonia and nitrite less toxic between water changes.
 
JVU said:
Agree with multiple 100% water changes until the die-off stops. You can dose with tiny amounts of Prime to temporarily make the ammonia and nitrite less toxic between water changes.
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Thanks John. I remember you commented on a post about using live rock rubbles to boost biodiversity and I agree with your point there.

I'm wondering how effective will adding 14 lbs of live rocks to my existing system (40 lbs of dry rocks, 6 months old) be for boosting biodiversity.
 
When you added the live rock + critters you had a big bump in bioload into the quarantine tank. Was the quarantine tank cycled? And did it already have animals in it? If not the sudden addition of animals with the liverock lead to the ammonia spike. I'd assume with stress of transport and a new environment is contributing to the die-off.
 
brucieK said:
Thanks John. I remember you commented on a post about using live rock rubbles to boost biodiversity and I agree with your point there.

I'm wondering how effective will adding 14 lbs of live rocks to my existing system (40 lbs of dry rocks, 6 months old) be for boosting biodiversity.
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I would think whatever winds up surviving in your quarantine tank kept at reef tank parameters will contribute significantly to the biodiversity of your full system once you add it. After that, everything will compete for niches and there will be winners and losers.
 
I’ve done what your trying to do. First let me say a reef aquarium is not 100% pest free. There is no such a thing. It’s all about the pest good or bad. Your gonna have to learn to live with it.
4 weeks of QT is nothing. There will be stuff coming out of that rock for a long time. Good and bad. Some come out fast. Some come out super slow. Some die quickly. Some die slowly.
Do I think it helped me ? Yeah. But then as I meet old school reefers that I know and trust. I ask them for a rock or a cup of muck. That’s the best way to add bio diversity. The bio is supposed to reproduce every 20 minutes if I recall correctly but I heard that a while ago.
Oh supposed to be 50/50 mix of live rock to dead rock. That’s what peeps said back in the day.
I think that there will be a main strain that will out compete the other strains. But then I’m just a guy who has been doing this for a while. No Scientific data
 
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