How to keep Live Rock

[super1man]

ok i have a bunch around 100 plus lbs of live rock that will not fit into my tank anymore and i want to keep it alive question is if i buy a 100 gallon poly bin that they use for live stock. do i have to run a skimmer on the tank also do i have to run a light on the tank? just want to keep the rock alive and keep it all the cool shades of purple.


thanks garret

[James77]

If you want to keep the purple coralline, yse you will need some light- a standard flourescent is enough. A skimmer wouldn't hurt, but not neccesary. Keep the water warm, maintain good flow, and keep the surface of the water slightly agitated.

[Lannyrx7]

If there is no light the coralline with become the light green color right?

[jbell370]

I stored mine for several months, I used a large Rubbermaid container, heater, power head with air attachment (maxi-jet) and a clamp on light from Home Depot. Every couple of days I rotated the rock, from bottom to top and all was fine.

[Fizz71]

I tried to keep my stock bin lit and all I got was a few sides of the topmost rock to keep their coraline growth which was nice, but once I put the rock in it's final place in the new tank all new surfaces were exposed to light so at most I just helped seed the new layout.

When I added my stored rock to the new system the rock appeared BRIGHT white under the new lights...dead coral white. :) It didn't take long to repopulate the coraline growth. If I didn't have some corals I was trying to keep alive I probably wouldn't have bothered with the MH lighting on the tub like I did. I did use old bulbs though..so I wasn't wasting bulb life.

Also realize that without a food source, long term storage of live rock will decrease it's bacterial level and potency. It will return to full strength quickly...I'm just pointing it out. :)

My tub was a 100g stock feed tub with a power heads tossed in including one big one rippling the surface and producing and swirl in the tub. My tub was PACKED, but I tried to leave as many gaps in there as possible to avoid as many dead spaces as possible. I also had a CUC in there and a good deal of them survived. I threw my old 4ft hood on top and just ran one 250W MH about 8 hours a day...it was like that for almost a year. Some of the rock was stored even longer in the old tank's sump...I bought people's rock leaving the hobby to build up my supply for the move from 105g to 240g!