How long can live rock survive without food/water change?

[Sand.man]

Hi,

So I bought a bunch of live rock last year, and I set up all my aquascaping, had a couple fish in there before some medical emergencies caused me to be unable to take care of the tank for a while, so I decided to give away my fish, but kept the live rock in my tank.

This was around June of 2013.

So for the past, 8 months or so, I've pretty much just left my live rock in my tank.

The tank is a 6 foot long 100 gallon. It has 2 powerheads running from either side to keep water flow up, and has a protein skimmer running the whole time. It gets some light.. but nothing siginificant. Every 2-3 days, I top up the water with filtered, 0 ppm water, and the temp stays around 75-76 degrees.

Every month or so, I drop some food in there, and this whole time, there has been ample multiplication of some snails/asternia starfish so I don't know if that's a good sign or not.

Things have picked up now, and I'm thinking of restarting the tank up again.

I was wondering, what state do you think my live rock might be in. Would the bacteria have lived this long? what about other tiny critters?

I'll do a water test in a couple days after a ~30% water change, and see what my levels are at.

I'm just curious about my live rock, that's all... just wondering if anyone might have any theories about the state of my live rock.

Thanks in advance.

[Xavibear]

The rock is still live.

[Sand.man]

Oh I see. So the bacteria/coraline would still be okay even without a constant source of ammonia to keep it alive?

[MinnFish]

As long as the rock was never dry in that time. Bacteria is still alive in the rocks and sand. These type of bacteria needs no light. Depending on the density of the rock, they are alive deep in the rocks. I would test for all parameters before proceeding any further. Good luck.

[hogfanreefer]

The numbers of bacteria are likely lower than before but they're there. Slowly adding livestock will allow it to increase as the bioload increases.

[Sand.man]

Thanks a lot for your answers, I appreciate it.

Is there a chance other hitchhikers such as bristle worms/mini brittle starfish have also survived?

I used to spot a couple mini brittle starfish in the beginning, but I'm not sure if they're just hiding now, or if they've all died... I'm hoping they're just hiding, lol. But considering they're nocturnal, I would have spotted more than usual if they were still alive?

Just wondering, since the asternias seem to be multiplying still, maybe the mini brittles might also be fine?

Thanks!

[Sk8r]

I'd just start feeding the tank a few flakes of flake food and testing for ammonia. This may help the bacteria increase. You really should not get ammonia unless it is going to cycle, but it might help then to add some snails and go through the protocols of qt (4 weeks for snails to add poo to the sandbed) just to be sure it's ready for a fish.

[Sand.man]

Yeah I understand that, I'm no where near any fish right now, lol.

I was just curious about the state of my live rock, but I'm glad that they're still somewhat live, instead of just dead rock in my aquarium.