[rogerthmyers]

I have a 90gallon saltwater tank with about 100lbs of live rock,
I had to put my tank and access in storage about 9mths ago, what can I do to bring my live rock back out. I realize I need to seed it with new live rock, but how much?
Also will a better light system make any difference?

 

[thefatman]

i dont think the bacteria care about lights. many peopel cycle thier tanks with no lights at all. so that shouldn't matter as far as the rock is concerned.

first of all, be sure you cure that rock first. not sure what you did , prior to storing it, but it may have dead organisms in it. if it's been stored for 9 months, i would put it in a bucket of water, with a powerhead, for a few days. (not saltwater, jsut plain old freshwater. then i'd stick those puppies out in the sun for a few days. (or do it in reverse)

as for how much new live rock to seed the old rock. that depends on how long you want to wait for the tank to cycle. you COULD get it started with jsut a few small pieces, or even one piece for that matter. toss in a prawn for feeding the bacteria, and sit back and relax for a few months. (certianly chepaer than buying a ton of new rock)

as long as the bioload is there, the bacteria will quickly spread to the existing rock.

btw: WELCOME TO TRT and WELCOME BACK TO SW :dance:

 

[Geoff]

Welcome to the TRT!!!

is the LR live now? that sounded wierd.

was it in storage and completely dead now? i would say 100lbs of LR is a great start of a 90. it may be about perfect. i would not get any more than that until you play around with how it looks in the tank.

G~

 

[ReefDave]

IMO I would go with about 15-20 if I was in no hurry (and if your in this hobby and in a hurry, there are some reef creatures in trouble). If you really want to get the cycle moving along, and get that rock seeded you would probably want about 1/2 of your rock to be live (just a guess). However, 200 lbs in a 90 is alot of rock. So if you are in a hurry, you might pull 20 lbs of the dead stuff out, and replace with a single 40lb box or so.


Personally I would lean more towards Jays idea. You have all that rock that you already paid for once, just re-seed it with 5-20 lbs of rock and sit back. Make sure you get really good rock. If you have LFS's like I have around here, then you are going to be sad when you get the "LR" home and there aren't any organisms to seed the new.

I believe there are a couple really good online places (harbor comes to mind) that sell smaller quantities of rock and will ship.

Dave

 

[rogerthmyers]

More Questions

Thanks for all of your replies....I have more questions though, I'm looking at getting some power compact lights for my tank, Do any of you know exactly what lights I should get and do you know where I could get the best price, again I have a 90gallon tank with about 100lbs of live rock, with sand...?? I would like to start putting sharks in my tank now.:dance:

 

[Geoff]

woah, hold on there buddy.

so you want to do sharks! a 90 is a little small. the only sharks you could keep are the smallest of the catsharks. the Atelomycterus macleayi is the only one recommended that could be kept in anything smaller than a 110. i would really suggest getting this book if you are really interested in keeping elasmobranchs.

you also do not want a lot of LR in an elasmobranch tank. they need all the swimming room you can give them. the catsharks are not active sharks hence the ability to be in smaller aquaria. they also need a very soft substrate. you will need to get something like southdown.

HTH,

G~

 

[ReefDave]

Im not going to go into the shark side of your post, but I will address the PC. I leave the shark info up to the people who know about them (looks like geoff has given some really good advice though) (oh and never trust and LFS that is selling sharks to provide any info about sharts) Thats it done with the shark part....

As for the lights. Its all about what you will be keeping and what your color preference is. Obviously on a 90 you will need a 48" bulb. If you were keeping corals (and you probably wouldn't in a shark tank) you wouldn't need much intensity a pair of 55watt bulbs would probably cut it. However, if you wanted to keep lower light corals I would recommend 2-4 96w bulbs. A mixture of daylight and actinics to get the color you like..........hope this helps.....but you need to decide on what kinda tank before you buy your lights. Shark tank needs little in the way of lighting...but that live rock will have to go....

Dave

 

[rogerthmyers]

Should I trust buyinh the PC lights online with Ebay?
I've found a couple for around $150, does that sound like a good price?

 

[ReefDave]

Roger,
I looked at those also. The price seemed VERY good...so of course that made me nervous. The feed back on the lights seemd VERY good, which made me feel better.

My experience with PC lighting is that a PC ballast is a PC ballast. There isn't the range of good to bad like there is with MH ballasts. I think at this point I could buy one of the ebay PC kits and feel pretty confident. But do some searches and try to find other people that know better than I.

BTW, I was planning on buying a set of PC off ebay just as soon as I determined just how yellow these two 250 iwasaki's were going to be on my tank.

Dave

 

[RayPollett]

As usual I do thinks different than most people.

Put all 100 pounds of your stored LR in the tank with the sand and filters, from the start. Use it to cycle the tank. When the cycle is done add the new rock to seed the old rock.

As for lights, upgrade only if you plan to keep something that requires better/brighter lights.

Ray

 

[beach bum]

Maybe I'm dense or missing something here, but I strongly doubt that your 'live' rock has any nitrifying bacteria at all. It sounds like it was stored dry, which makes it plain old rock, just soak/rinse it in freswater before you use it, mostly to get the dust off!

Point A - A couple islands and maybe a ledge of rock is all you need for a shark tank, swimming room is premium, especially so in a 90g.

Point B - It doesn't matter AT ALL how much LR you put in that tank, using it as a filtration method for sharks is frivilous, and secondary at best. It will only be decorative.

Point C - PC lighting is only for your pleasure, it will not bring out any extra life from the rock except algae. And believe me, there will be algae. The same spectrums can be achieved just fine with NO flourescents, extra wattage will probably be a waste (imo).

Point D - 90g will suffice for a short time, but even the smallest more sedentary sharks like the bamboo will need at least 100g eventually (re: 5 foot tank). And most species will need a 180 and up.

Point E - Priorities. Spend that PC lighting money on a top-notch skimmer and wet/dry filter, and make sure that they will handle a larger tank than the one you have, because you'll be needing a larger one sooner or later. Buy a book like 'Aquarium Sharks and Rays' before you dive in headfirst.

Fwiw,
bb

 

[Geoff]

Point D - 90g will suffice for a short time, but even the smallest more sedentary sharks like the bamboo will need at least 100g eventually (re: 5 foot tank). And most species will need a 180 and up.

Beach- i agree with everything you said. just some clarification of the shark species mentioned. all if the info i will give comes directly out of the book both Beach and i have mentioned. the bamboo shark (Chiloscyllium punctatum), the one most common in LFS, is a fairly large shark. they can get up to 40.6". they are not recommended for anything less than a 170g tank. the marbled catshark (Atelomycterus macleayi) is a very small shark. it reaches a length of only 23.4". they can be kept in aquaria as small as 70g. this species is the smallest one that can be found easily in the aquarium trade. there are smaller ones but they are very difficult to find.

these small sharks are very slow moving. they are not what one would think about when you say "shark". those require extremely large aquaria in order to be kept.

G~

 

[manderson0805]

I would Highly reccomend the Jalli lights on Ebay. I can't remember the name of the guy that sells them, but he's in Wisconsin. The bulbs are a little cheesy, but for the price of the light you can't beat it

 

[rogerthmyers]

Reply to Beach Bum

Beach Bum...Thanks
All of your point were great...I guess I'll stay away from sharks, since my tank isn't big enough, your right my rock was stored dry, and I rinsed it off and set the tank up yesterday....I added the salt and checked the salinity levels which are fine..I guess I need to sit from here and let the tank cycle....I've already got a good skimmer and a dual bio filter as well...At this time I want to get better lighting b-c for some reason in the past it seemed like I couldn't keep anything alive in my tank for an extended period of time...I hope that better lighting might help that. I'm in no hurry to get the lighting though b-c it's my understanding that I can cycle my tank witout any light at all....Write back if anyone has any suggestions.....:beer:

 

[Geoff]

i would either put in a piece of fresh shrimp to start the cycle, or better yet get a couple of pieces of new LR. without anything to power the cycle it will take forever. the LR will contain bacteria and other critters to look at while the tank is cycleing.

G~

 

[beach bum]

Yep, a couple pieces of LR (make certain they smell like [email protected], the ranker the better, don't buy cured)) will introduce ammonia into the tank and is a great way to go about cycling. Like Mr. Geoff said dead shrimp will work too. Just get some kind of waste in there and test the water until ammonia and nitrIte are gone (usually at the same time brown algae starts to grow).


Would you believe I have an LFS that loans out a big v-tail grouper to customers so they can cycle their tank? Then they just return it. Sick! But that is one tough grouper.

 

[rogerthmyers]

Cloudiness in tank

I'm back asking more questions,.....
With me putting this live rock that was stored dry for 9mths back into my tank and setting it up again, should my water be really cloudy? I set it up again about 3days ago....:beer:

 

[Casey]

kinda a milky haze like fog if yes thats fine probably a bacterial bloom

 

[thefatman]

Would you believe I have an LFS that loans out a big v-tail grouper to customers so they can cycle their tank? Then they just return it. Sick! But that is one tough grouper.

that's how i got started keeping oscars. i had an lfs that loaned out oscars to cycle the tank, as long as you bought tank and equip from them. well i had two large orange/grey oscars for about 2 months, when it came time to return them, i couldn't. by then they were eating from my hands, and following me everywhere, and would let me pet them.

so i asked him how much, cuz i really wanted to keep them. and he said, man those have been ehre so long, that's why i loan them out, too big for me to care for them. they are yours, free of charge!

roger, yeah i woudl say the tank would havea milky haze, from all the bacteria that was dead on the rock.

 

[rogerthmyers]

How long do yu think the haze will be there?