live rock out of water

[tehon3299]

I have had my LR in my tank for about 9 days now and I would like to take it out and stir up the sand and clean up all the die off and was wondering how long I can leave the LR out of the tank without having considerable die off and then having a re-cycle. 6 hours? 24 hours?

Help!

[Dubbin1]

I would say 1hr tops.

[kau_cinta_ku]

i wouldn't go much more than 1 hour as even then you will have some die off. isn't there a way you can put some water into a bucket and put the LR in there to keep it wet to prevent dieoff?

[tehon3299]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7131100#post7131100 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kau_cinta_ku
i wouldn't go much more than 1 hour as even then you will have some die off. isn't there a way you can put some water into a bucket and put the LR in there to keep it wet to prevent dieoff?

I was going to do this but there is a lot of LR and its in a 50g container and I didnt want to have to remove that much water from my cycling 90g tank.

[chip721]

Would be nice if you could hold off on the task for one more day. I would pre-mix some fresh sw. Then pull just enough water from the cycling tank to cover the lr while you work in the tank. Once you've performed your maintenance, add the fresh water to the tank and dump the old water from the 50g container.

Don't want to mix fresh sw? Then pull the lr and enough water from the tank to cover it. Do your maintenance. Put the lr back. Put the old water back.

I didn't do anything to my tank while it was cycling except run the skimmer and some powerheads. I barely had a noticeable ammonia spike. But I started off with cured lr. Good luck.

[tkenm377]

During the beginning stages of setting up a reef tank it is all about patience... Its just a big waiting game.. Just let everything do what it is naturally going to so.. Im starting my third tank, a 30L, and I have had my sand and LR sitting in there for about 3 weeks now... I would just let the skimmer and circulation do its suties for a while and then add a cleaning crew in there to take care of all the dead waste! Good Luck.

[mg426]

I agree you should do whatever it takes to keep in wet (under water) If possible.

[bertoni]

I think that leaving the debris in the tank is much safer than taking the live rock out of water. You could siphon out some of the detritus, if you want, but I'm not sure I'd bother. I doubt it's hurting anything if the ammonia is at zero.