Help with rock

[Tandi69]

I am extremely new to SW, my tank is not even set up. Quick recap, 55gal was inherited and moved with a 3 hr dr over mt roads. Needless to say nothing survived the following morning.


I since learned from this forum that it was due to varios things, sand being shifted, drastic water change, temp fluctuations etc. I tore the entire tank down. The tank came from a home with well water.

I got my RO/DI unit in this week and will be hooking it up this weekend.


My question. I've had the LR in buckets with water from the original tank, needless to say, yes it smells like a dead ocean when you lift the lid. I am hoping this rock is salvagealbe, since there has got to me more than 100 lbs. It has been sitting in the buckets for over a week.


Another question, I know this may seem stupid, but after the water is ran through a RO/DI, do I still need to use a dechlorinator in the water?

Thanks for any help :)

[murfman]

run your RO/DI and make some salt water. No, you dont need to dechlorinate it.

Once you have some salt water made, drain some of the old water out of the buckets and add new water. make sure you have a power head to move the water around. In a week or so, do the same thing again. You could put the rock in your tank now but, all the smell will be moved into the house.

[I am a giraffe]

That live rock may not be very live anymore, but it's still absolutely usable. Just take it out of the bucket give it a good dip and rinse in new RO/DI saltwater to clean off the dead stuff, and then put it in your new tank. It'll set off a cycle, and will smell a little bit, but will be fine in a few weeks.

[Tandi69]

Awesome!!! Thanks for the responses. i'm so glad to hear it's salvageable :)

[wasupdavey]

When everything is set up lights on and all powerheads rolling. You might wanna add a piece of raw shrimp or so to get the ammonium levels up so the bacteria can start growing faster.

[returnofsid]

You probably won't need to add the raw shrimp. You'll have die off from your live rock that'll be plenty to get your bacteria kick started. In the future, DON'T ever move tanks with anything in them. This is the leading cause of silicone failure down the road. You won't notice it immediately but it stresses the seams a lot.

[Tandi69]

Oh yeah, I definately learned a lesson from that one. My aunt had moved and wasn't able to keep the tank. So after that disaster I've been trying to research like crazy before I set this back up. :)

[omni2226]

Even though its been in cans for a week or two you will be suprised by what can live through that mess.

Some of the worms and pods can burrow deep into the rock and survive a long time.

Get the rocks into some fresh made saltwater asap and watch what crawls out over time.