Adding live rock to an established tank

S

scrapeground

Reefing newb
I have a 29 gal biocube that I've used for a quarantine tank for some time now (about 4 months). It's been cycled and everything. It has 40 lbs of sand and three pieces of live rock just to make the new comers feel a bit at home until they finally make it to the main tank. Oh, there's also a couple pieces of coral in there just for looks when nobody is in there. I've decided to build a better QT and turn biocube into a reef tank. I've just ordered 30 lbs of dry rock. Is there anything special I need to do to the dry rock before I put it in the tank or can I just throw it in there? I don't want my parameters to get out of whack.
 
A true QT tank should be bare bottom and not have any rock in there. The medications that you should be treating your fish with will kill off any bacteria that makes the rock live and will also leach into the rock preventing its use in any tank again.
 
The way they wrote this post I'm assuming that they use their "QT" tank just to separate fish...without medicating them....at least that's what it seems like to me...maybe scrapeground can let us know...
 
There was never any medication in the biocube. I purchased fish and placed them in the biocube for observation. After a couple of months, if they looked and behaved fine, I placed them in the display tank. It was just a separate tank used to make sure things were cool with any fish I bought were ok and not sick. My next QT tank is gonna be a bit bigger and have a better filtration system.
 
Ok, you do realize that you still have ich and all those other things in your DT right? without treatment, the fish just carries them.
 
Several months ago, I researched the life cycle of ich and there are a couple tail tale signs that will let you know if you have the problem. After my first run in with ich, I have been very cautious with every new fish that I've purchased. Making sure it is not diseased. I do not want to stress it with medications unless necessary. Luckily I have not needed any. This is why I'm am upgrading my current QT to a better one (hint hint) and turning my 29 bio (non medicaded) into a reef. Just wanted a question about the rock answered. Thank you.
 
Ich is commensal parasite living on every fish, just like you have E. coli living in your gut. Unless you treated with copper for 45 days, you have ich on your fish and in your tank. Its not a big deal, most fish can keep it from taking over (thats when you see the white dots) on their own as long as they arent stressed out. Just like in the wild. Introduce some permeant source of stress, fish can come down with ich and then die from it.
 
A fish could look perfectly fine, infected with ich, indefinitely if they're not under any stress. Simply putting them in an observation might help some, but with live rock in there and no medicating you've essentially just setup another DT.

If you're not going to do it 'right' then why bother asking questions? Obviously your research didn't amount to ish. Any other forum will tell you the same thing.

If you absolutely don't want ich, medicate them. If you just want healthy looking fish that can live just fine with it, make sure they have a nice big home and aren't stressed and they'll be fine. Just don't drop an attitude when you don't hear what you want.
 
I agree with Kevin if you arent going to listen to some advice on aomething that is only going to help you ( it wont affect anyone on this forum).... To turn on Hannah and become sarcastic was seriously uncalled for ( she was only trying to help you)... Without letting your DT fallow for 8 weeks or so ich will always be there.. As far as the dry rock +1 Hannah just rinse and throw in...
 

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