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1K views 18 replies 6 participants last post by  Soltaker 
#1 ·
I was wondering if someone could advise me on how to prepare live rock for my 80g. I just got 45 lbs of premium fiji "pre-cured". I was kind of suprised to see a lot of junk still on it. I pretty much just took each piece and dunked it in a bucket of aged saltwater (1.023 roughly the same as my display tank) and quickly knocked off anything that looked ready to fall off. Now that I see it in my tank (which has no fish or substrate, by the way. I'm just setting it up) it has a lot of "stuff" hanging off it. Little twig like things (dead corals?), looks like some dried up macro algae possible a feather duster casing. I grew up in minnesota I won't claim to recognize any of the life (or former life) on the rock. Should I be pulling all that stuff off and activly seeking bivalves and mollusks hiding in nooks and crannys or do I just let the stuff rot away and clean it up by vacuuming frequently? Thanks

Tom
 
#3 ·
I've been preparing for this for around 6 months so I've read a lot and seen lots of pictures of fresh (from the ocean) live rock and cured live rock but mine looks somewhere in between. After having read some of the iformation on the board here about keeping phosphates under control, by keeping nutrients out of the tank, I wondered if I shouldn't clean them up a bit.

So are the sticks dead corals? How about the plant material, will macros thrive with high ammonia/nitrites? As soon as the ammonia and nitrites come down I'll put in some critters to clean some stuff up but in the mean time should I be hunting it down and getting it out?

The skimmer is running and I do have a mechanical filter to catch the big chunks.

Anyways, it doesn't smell bad, so I guess I'll just let it go for a couple weeks, if the chemistry doesn't come around then I'll start picking stuff out of there.

Thanks.
 
#11 ·
So it is a pest? Or is it that its hardy and a prolific reproducer and if I don't want a bunch of them, I should nip it in the bud? Sorry to be so thick but I really don't know *anything* about coral. So far it seems nice enough, I'm inclined to keep it. :) By the way, wouldn't ripping it from the rock cause it to propagate? (I've read thats the case with Aiptasia).
 
#13 ·
Thanks for the input. I think I will declare him to be my first coral and I will name him "Fred". ( I don't want to use up any really cool names in case it dies, no offense intended to any Freds out there, it's a cool enough name, just not for a coral.)

Tom
 
#14 ·
Tom,

It sounds like you are doing just fine with your LR. Siphoning out any gunk that settles and skimming heavily you should be just fine. Starting without a sandbed is a great way to go, much easier than how I did it with a sand bed. You've done a lot of research so you do know a lot of the pitfalls....the worst one is doing too much too fast. Just take it slow and easy and your problems will be minimized. I think its cool that you already have a palythoa in there, thats great! Later if it starts growing crazy can decided if you want to remove it, but at this stage of the game just seeing something growing alive in there is cool! Wait until you think its really time to get a clean up crew. I get mine from Jerry and its nice because you don't have to worry about shipping and what might not make it etc.

What are you using for water movement in the tank?

Please keep us posted, even with pictures of this stage. It's always exciting to hear about another tank making the journey to a reef tank!

Best of luck,

Sue
 
#15 ·
Thanks for the kind words Sue. I don't know who Jerry is but I'll give him every consideration when it comes time for a cleaning crew. I dislike the thought of shipping critters through the mail, so someone local is appealing to me.

For circulation in the tank right now I have three MJ 1200's and a fluval 404 that I'm running just to take out the gunk (I'll clean it out every couple days until the rock is cured, then I'll just remove it altogether).

By the way, I'm running sumpless and I have an aquac remora pro with a MAG 3 and the pre-skimmer box. And just to round things out I'm using 4x65 PC lighting (which is only on when I'm looking at it for now). That pretty much sums up the equipment (oh, and a 20gal QT that's been running for about a month now, all cycled and ready to go)

Tom
 
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