Dead Live Rock

[ChefFish]

Thanx everyone, I will pick up some pumps and give it a shot. Has anyone had experience using products like startup? If I "cook" the rock then cover it with live rock that is in my current tank, do I really need to use it at all?

[asylumdown]

assuming there was lots of stuff that was on the rock that has died and will rot during the cooking process, using a product like startup *may* speed it up. the process of 'cooking' the rock to remove all the nasty organics is essentially the nitrogen cycle from start to a complete finish, with no addition of new organic material to keep the conveyor belt going along the way, so you're going to get a spike in ammonia eaters, then a spike in nitrite eaters, and then once all that solid waste has been turned in to dissolved nitrate and phosphate, you're going to suck it out with water changes until the rock isn't leaching any more of it. The bacteria that convert all that solid waste to aqueous nutrients that you can suck out with the water are the same ones responsible for the nitrogen cycle that keep our tanks alive, so adding them in the form of a product like start-up in significant quantity at the start might shave a week or two off the process.

Those bacteria will colonize and do their thing one way or the other because they're everywhere, but if you rely on mother nature to supply them you might wait a little longer.

[asylumdown]

I would also just caution that you make sure everything on the rock is truly dead. Was it stored dry? Aiptasia would be the perfect aquarium pets of they weren't hideous, sociopathic little serial killers. You would be shocked at what sort of conditions they can survive. I've had them survive submerging a rock in a pot of boiling water because I didn't leave it in long enough for the dead centre of the rock to reach boiling temp. Every last thing on the rock was nuked, but within 24 hours of going back in the tank, a mid-adult nem was poking it's head out from one of the holes. If the rock has remained damp at all, I would either leave it outside in the sun for a few days, or pop those suckers in the oven on low for an hour or two.

[ChefFish]

Thank you, I think I will just let nature do her thing. I am not in a rush as I started my tank with new rock and have got it established. 3 months in and everything is going well. As for anything alive on the rock its been outside for almost 3 months and has frozen and thawed nemourous times thanx to the wonderful alberta weather,lol.