Reusing live rock that's been in a bucket of water for a week?

breebauer

Reefing newb
Hi again!

I have a question about reusing some LR that was taken of out my other tank right before Christmas.

It's been sitting in a bucket since, with tank water, no heater or powerhead.

I'm going to try to fix up my bf's ghetto 'local' tank that is probably beyond help, but I'm bored and I'm going to try anyway. I have this rock sitting in my living room, and it has to go somewhere.

Can I use it even though I never put a heater in the bucket? Or do I have to cure it all over again?

I looked in there yesterday and got a huge worm that was still alive out (and planted it in my garden :D) so I'm assuming that there's other stuff that's still alive too...

Thanks!
Happy New Year! :Cheers:
 
I had a LR with purple algae on it, sit in a cooler (no flow) for about a week and it is doing great in my new tank. Im not for sure, someone will have to fill me in.
 
I forgot to say that there's are a few small unknown bay fish, 2 small crabs and 2 shrimp in there- sorry. It still ghetto, though.

The rock or the water doesn't smell bad at all. And when I did my last water change on the other tank, I put some of that water in the bucket. I'm not sure if that would help or not.

The water has been room temp for about a week. Would that give me a huge amount of die off?
 
No,you shouldn't have to much die off from room temperature.You might get some from not having the water circulating though.Your get more die-off from lack of oxygen than having the live rock at room temperature.

Check the water that the live rock is in for ammonia and nitrite.If its zero,then put it in the tank.
 
Ok, that makes sense. I might be in the clear since I did add some water, and stirred things up. I'll test it later after work.

Thanks again!
 
it also depends on what "room temp" means. for me that is 70 degrees. for my mother, it is 60 degrees. if it don't stink, you are good. drop it in

-Doc
 
it also depends on what "room temp" means. for me that is 70 degrees. for my mother, it is 60 degrees. if it don't stink, you are good. drop it in

-Doc

Nope, I'm in the 70 degree room temp zone.

(If it makes you feel any better, my stepmother's room temp is about 85 degrees :neutral:. Any day I stop by there, I can skip going to the gym...)

Here's my next reusing live rock question:

I took a bunch of live rock out of the ghetto tank, and it's all completely covered in algae. Red and green stingy algae (the tank was real ghetto).

Any ideas what to do with that bunch of LR? There's a bunch of it, and I'd like to keep it.

Thanks again for the help!
 
Not to highjack the thread but I recently saw someone on eBay who was selling "dry" live rock...promoting it as good "base" rock for larger aquariums that would "come back to life" after adding good live rock on top of it...

Anybody have any opinions on this?
 
base rock is just dead rock. you will have a cycle with it though. Don't add it to an existing tank or you will kill everything.

Now then, back to the thread about ghetto live rock. It will be fine to add, just clean it off with a stiff tooth brush for a bit before adding it to your DT. I have done that before. Just don't brush your teeth with it after you are done....:shock:

-Doc
 
Dont use someone elses brush without telling them either.(the wife didnt think that was one bit funny).

Docs right.Just take a new tooth brush and give the rock a good scrubbing and rinse it in saltwater.
 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I hope my wife doesn't read that............ It'll be awful cold in the bedroom for quite a long time if she does. :cold:
 
I'm filing that one away for a rainy day. I like it!

Or, maybe I'll just save the toothbrush for a rainy day.

It's the little things in life that make me happy...

I'm going to go scrub the rocks now....Thanks!
 
Using dry base rock is a good way to save money when you add live rock to your tank. The "living" stuff on the live rock will eventually spread to the base rock. It's called "seeding" dry rock.
 
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