How long can LR live for without light?

[S.O.S.]

Hello everyone! How long can the organisms on my live rock live for without proper lighting? All I have right now over my 27 gal is a 15w actinic. I have to wait until my next paycheck (2 weeks) to get my MH bulb! My live rock is incredible, lots of life on it...and I wanna keep it that way! Any info would be great! Thanks..

[peiji]

I don't know but I'm wondering the same thing. By the way, where did you get your live rock? Have you got any fish in there now or you're starting from scratch?

[S.O.S.]

Originally posted by peiji
I don't know but I'm wondering the same thing. By the way, where did you get your live rock? Have you got any fish in there now or you're starting from scratch?

I got my live rock at my local fish store. They are well known in my area for carrying excellent pieces of live rock and coral. One thing they don't carry is good live sand though The tank is started from scratch and there's nothing in there except aragonite sand and 35lbs of LR...which I hope to keep alive (well, the stuff living on it anyways) until I can get proper lighting!

[asmith]

How long the stuff on your live rock can survive depends on what types of "stuff" you have. I would say that you will probably be OK for two weeks untill you get your lights. I would just use the 15 watt light until you get the new lights.

Andrew

[Brooke]

FWIW, we had nice coralline growth on a tank sitting idle only getting amient light through a window (no direct sunlight). So...even a cheapie strip light over the rock would be fine. I would try to get some "daylight" light on them if nothing else.

Brooke

[kermit the krab]

When I setup my new tank, I was falling behind schedule and I had over a 100lbs of lr I acquired from people getting out of the hobby sitting in buckets without light but with powerheads to keep the water circulating. Well, when I was finally done getting the tank together, 2 months later, I added the rock and to my surprise, no ammonia spike. The rock was fine and is doing very good to this day.