Live Rock Experts - How to deal with new live rock

bassman · #1 02-28-2008, 06:10 PM

I recently purchased 45lbs of live rock from a forum member with two very established tanks. One tank had a fair bit of red hair algae in it, the other had lots of coraline, a little bubble algae and no red hair. 90% of the rock I took was from is tank.

I currently have 75 lbs of LR in my display tank so I only put two peices in. Both with lots of coraline and I removed all the bubble algae I could see.

The rest of the rock is currently in my 20 gallon refugium under two 17-watt GE energy saver, natural day light, 6700K lights. I cleaned off most of the bubble algae but other then that I didn't do anything to the rock.
I was out of water, in a rubbermaid for 2 hrs tops, still wet when it came out.

I ended up having to put one large rock in my sump, with no lights what so ever. This piece has some red hair algae on it.

Should I be concerned about at ton of die off? I am expecting some die off as he was running 250 watt halides, I only run 150's on my main tank and next to nothing on my fuge when compared to 250 watts of halides.
I am curious as to how fast any die off will happen, or if it will be a slow gradual process.

My main DT tank is 55 gal, the sump is over 80 and the fuge is 20, so approx. 150 gallons total water.

I am thinking of possibly upgrading my refugium lighting to higher wattage bulbs (65w) but the same kelvin rating as to promote macro aglae growth.

I am wondering if I should pull all the new rock out this weekend and cook / refresh it in rubbermaids for a couple of months. I could use the dump water from my main tanks water changes to clean and refresh the water the rocks are in every 2 weeks.

Or will it be just fine the way it is?

ElGuappo · #2 02-28-2008, 06:56 PM

look down a thred at my red slime thred good discusion on cooking rock and leaving it in the dark. sorry better thred is in the reef forum under LR in the dark good discusion there.

bassman · #3 02-28-2008, 08:04 PM

Yah I saw that thread, I didn't want to post there to avoid high jacking the thread. In my case I am not sure if I need to cook it or not.

I am trying to figure out if any die off due to the much lower lighting is going to have any immediate, harmful effects on my system or if it will be a much slower, drawn out process. Making the effects virtually undetectable.

ElGuappo · #4 02-28-2008, 08:14 PM

i have just seen a BLACKOUT cycle and am thinking thats how im going to go heres the link.

the link isnt working goto red slime thred again and look for reefer bobs last post use the RC link on the HERE Word.

Thanks Again reefer Bob.

Reefer Rob · #5 02-29-2008, 12:03 AM

If you already have hair and bubble algae in your aquarium I wouldn't worry about it. If your tank is clean I wouldn't let it anywhere near your tank. Cook that rock!

I love that super clean rock look you only see in aquariums with cooked rock. My next tank switch I'm going to cook all my rock.

bassman · #6 02-29-2008, 12:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reefer Rob

If you already have hair and bubble algae in your aquarium I wouldn't worry about it. If your tank is clean I wouldn't let it anywhere near your tank. Cook that rock!

I love that super clean rock look you only see in aquariums with cooked rock. My next tank switch I'm going to cook all my rock.

Well that is my dilema, my main tank is spotless, however I only put 2 little pieces of the new rock in there. Both had zero algae on them, aside from a nice thick layer of coraline.

The stuff with very little hair and almost no bubble is all in my fuge where I want to promote algae growth.

The only sucker with any red hair is all alone in my sump, in the dark 24/7.