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can live rock die off raise phosphate levels? im assuming it does.. just wanna be sure?
live rock die off question
- Thread starter umbrellacorp
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also, i was told i could fill a bucket with RO and shake the LR in the bucket to get all the dead stuff to fall off, is this a good idea? I can already tell my phosphate levels in my new tank are high. Algae on sand already and on the live rock. Everything else checks out fine. I have a emperor 280, fluval 205, and sea clone 100 on there. So would it be a good idea to shake all the dead stuff off the LR? Thanks for the help.
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this is a new tank set up.. been up about a week. I am cycling it with the LR. The LR was uncured.. i picked it up right when the store got it in from the farm. There is a ton of stuff on it and im sure a lot of it will/is dying. My Nitrates/trites, ph, alk, salinity, are all normal.
The emperor is brand new, the fluval was cleaned and new filter media put in it. I have not put any food in there because there is nothing to feed yet... so the tank has cycled but the phosphate is so high. Thats why i was assuming it must be the die off from the live rock? Its about 30 pounds of LR and like i said it wasnt cured. Just straight from the ocean, to the store, to my tank. I guess the best thing to do would be to buy some phosguard? There is no algae on the glass but the sand has already started to turn brown and some of the rock has started to get green algae (not hair algae) on it as well.
The emperor is brand new, the fluval was cleaned and new filter media put in it. I have not put any food in there because there is nothing to feed yet... so the tank has cycled but the phosphate is so high. Thats why i was assuming it must be the die off from the live rock? Its about 30 pounds of LR and like i said it wasnt cured. Just straight from the ocean, to the store, to my tank. I guess the best thing to do would be to buy some phosguard? There is no algae on the glass but the sand has already started to turn brown and some of the rock has started to get green algae (not hair algae) on it as well.
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That would be considered cured rock I would think. I really dont think you cycled the tank if you used that rock.
Do you want to keep whats on the rock. If not I would bleach the rock for a day rinse it and set it in the sun for a week or so. Then you can really cycle the tank which takes about a month.
Do you want to keep whats on the rock. If not I would bleach the rock for a day rinse it and set it in the sun for a week or so. Then you can really cycle the tank which takes about a month.
The rock that you added looked great, but, I think with all the extra inhabitants on it, you added it to early. Simple live rock would have been a wiser chose. I say this because you would have got the parameters right before introducing all those corals, algaes, and other inhabitants of that live rock you got. It looked amazing though
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using rock like that then he wouldn't even have a cycle right?
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I am by far not a pro. Also slightly confused? You said you got rock much like that in the link? When I start a tank I tend to use a lot of the "live rock" from my LFS and I stop in periodically to catch some nice cured pieces. There is always an initial spike but what is on that rock will cycle the die off out. As for all the "extra's" that came on the rock? I am with BlakeJohn, rinse if off in salt water from a change, and if all other parameters you should not see much die off. As touchy as salt water may be....you would be surprised how resilient some of these things are. I have had "extra's" (sponges and inverts) that look like they are about to kick the bucket, and come back stronger than ever. Just do frequent water changes with good water and you should be fine.
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okay.. thanks guys. I just dont understand all these phosphate issues ive been having.. with both tanks. Im assuming it must be the LR. Everything else is in range.. i know phosphate isnt that important as to the health of fish but the algae it causes is a real PITA. I dont mind it as much on the glass since i can clean it, but when its on the sand and on the rock itself it just bothers me there is nothing i can do about it.
I used uncured LR to start my cycle off. I counted on the die off to act as the bioload, just as some people feed an empty tank too start things going. I still have 2 shrooms from my first piece of LR. There are lots of ways to get the job done, I'm sure some are better than others, but this did work for me.
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