noob chronicles...... what would you do next

SaltyDog143 · #1 11-19-2014, 03:50 PM

Ok so here is where we are......

Purchased live rock from a fellow member on here that was shutting his tank down, that was this past saturday, also dropped into Big Al's and grabbed some cleaner crew, emerald crab, snails and hermits. One of the rocks has a mini carpet and we got his 3 chromis from him as well.

Not entirely sure how much rock but it looks to be enough for our 120gal, upon getting it home and closer inspection we found alot of bristle worms and some majona anenome's on the rocks. We also got a bunch of his water to ship the rocks and fish for the trip home, as it's about 3 hr drive. There was also alot of xenia on his rocks that we have no interest in so alot of that got scraped off. All in all the rock looks good aside from said issues, a mixture of fiji, punaki, some tonga, etc.

We took the rock with the mini carpet and a few others and imediately got them into the quarantine tank with their water. long story short did some reading on the majona and bristle worms and decided to give the rocks a cold dip in the water they would be housed in, so out came water from my main tank and out on the deck for a couple hours. Next we dipped the rocks and cleaned as much bristle worms and majona as we could, did some aqua scaping and into the display tank they go (will post pics from my phone later).

Have the main display tank running with the rock in there since sunday, tested parameters last night on both tanks and here is what I came up with.

Display tank..................... quarantine tank
Salinity 1.025...................... 1.026
Ph8.2.........................................8.0
Amonia 0..................................0
Nitrite 0..................................0
Nitrate 5.0............................160

So after these readings, I did a 25% water change to the quarantine tank, will retest the Nitrate this evening.

I guess what I am asking here is should I move the stuff from quarantine over to my display? should I wait? how long should I wait or what parameters should I look for before moving things over?

My cleaner crew is in the quarantine tank, we did lose one chromis and the emerald crab on the trip home. I plan on cold dipping the rocks from the quarantine tank before putting them in the display, to get more bristle worms out and to try to get rid of the few majona that are on these rocks, but I don't want to harm the mini carpet so going to have to be very careful with him.

As always comments and advice are much appreciated
Randy

IanWR · #2 11-19-2014, 04:00 PM

At least as far as the bristle worms go, you won't get rid if them by anything short of something that would kill everything on the rock. I hate the look of them myself, but they are just another member of your cuc.

Coralgurl · #3 11-19-2014, 05:08 PM

Bristle worms are not a bad thing, you will end up with them at some point again, I wouldn't worry about them. Just don't touch them with your bare hands...ouch!

You may kill off other good stuff (bacteria) on the rocks by "cold" dipping them and end up requiring a full cycle of your rocks. Before placing in your DT, I'd put them where you can monitor the parameters to make sure you don't end up with ammonia from die off after dipping.

Regarding the majanos, you could epoxy over them, these pest nems are hard to kill for a reason, some may even say blow torch lol!!

kien · #4 11-19-2014, 05:15 PM

My question would be: what is your ultimate goal with the quarantine tank?

kamloops_reefer · #5 11-19-2014, 05:37 PM

arrow crab took care of every bristle worm I had, but then no one wanted him after and he likely caused some fatalities in the tank.

Bristle worms are good, but I prefer not to run the risk of getting stung by one

SaltyDog143 · #6 11-19-2014, 05:46 PM

Thanks for the replies guys...

My ultimate goal for my quarantine tank....to hold the anenome and fish until its good/safe to move over to the display tank, nothing more. Just needed somewhere to put them while I was trying to get the tank and rocks setup.

As for bristle worms, I know I am not going to kill them all, just trying to reduce the numbers, when I turned one rock over it was almost orange there were so many.

So when would you guys move the stuff from quarantine to the display? should I wait maybe a week to see what happens? or should I be ok to do it now?

Thanks
Randy

chi · #7 11-19-2014, 06:12 PM

I had the same experience as you. Got live rock off a member and it had other unwanted algae and hitch hikers. At this point, as much as I like the biodiversity that comes with live rock, I'm planning to just kill everything with acid and bleach. Go for dead rocks and turn to mechanical filtration.

kien · #8 11-19-2014, 06:16 PM

If the live rock came straight out of the other dude's tank then chances are that it has already been cycled. The big thing to watch for is a cycle (ammonia and nitrite) in your display tank. I'm going to venture a guess that you won't see much of one as the rock you're using probably has enough nitrifying bacteria. However, having said that, since your tank appears to be quite new (like less than a week?) I would hold off on putting anything in the display tank for a few more days. Test Nitrite and Ammonia again in a few days to see if there is any rise in either. You probably won't, but the rock did travel 3 hours so there is a chance that there was some die off that may cause a mini-cycle (slight elevation in Ammonia and nitrite).

ponokareefer · #9 11-19-2014, 06:40 PM

I would make sure all the Majona's are gone for at least a month in the quarantine tank before putting it into the display. You will never get rid of them once they are in the display and will be a constant headache. You may need to kill everything on the rock to make sure they are fully gone. I'm afraid you are probably stuck with dead rock.

CM125 · #10 11-19-2014, 07:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SaltyDog143

Thanks for the replies guys...

My ultimate goal for my quarantine tank....to hold the anenome and fish until its good/safe to move over to the display tank, nothing more. Just needed somewhere to put them while I was trying to get the tank and rocks setup.

As for bristle worms, I know I am not going to kill them all, just trying to reduce the numbers, when I turned one rock over it was almost orange there were so many.

So when would you guys move the stuff from quarantine to the display? should I wait maybe a week to see what happens? or should I be ok to do it now?

Thanks
Randy

There are lots of fish that will keep bristle worm numbers under control, I would go this route. Don't move everything over until your parameters are good, there is really no set time

Quote:

Originally Posted by ponokareefer

I would make sure all the Majona's are gone for at least a month in the quarantine tank before putting it into the display. You will never get rid of them once they are in the display and will be a constant headache. You may need to kill everything on the rock to make sure they are fully gone. I'm afraid you are probably stuck with dead rock.

That might be a little excessive, there are lots of ways to kill these without having to fully kill and recycle