Dropping live rock in a tank with ammonia?

Kershaw

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So I just started a fish less cycle. Then a friend of mine just gave me a 10 gallon tank stacked with live rock. If I were to drop 10 - 20 pounds of live rock into my 140gal tank with a 1.5ppm of ammonia would it kill most of the live rock? Or would it start processing the ammonia? All my past tanks were started with live rock, this is my first dry rock cycle.
Thanks.
 

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It should start processing the ammonia. All that bacteria should seed your current rock as well. The bacteria population grows as you add more ammonia source, so still go slow adding fish to let it balance out properly.

Put it in and test ammonia again tomorrow night see where it’s at.
 
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Kershaw

Kershaw

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It should start processing the ammonia. All that bacteria should seed your current rock as well. The bacteria population grows as you add more ammonia source, so still go slow adding fish to let it balance out properly.
Thanks for the quick reply. I assume anything living in rocks will likely be affected by ammonia? There are snails and hermit crabs but I can remove most of them. My buddy had all his fish die from ICH a little over 3 months ago so his tank has been fallow but still has some inverts.
 

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They could be. Depends on how well the rock deals with the current ammonia. If you can keep the snails and crabs in the 10 gallon for a day or two that would be ideal. Then once you get that zero reading on ammonia you could add them in. Just curious do you have any nitrates yet?
 
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They could be. Depends on how well the rock deals with the current ammonia. If you can keep the snails and crabs in the 10 gallon for a day or two that would be ideal. Then once you get that zero reading on ammonia you could add them in. Just curious do you have any nitrates yet?
I think tomorrow I’ll pull half the rock and put it in tank and keep the 10 gal going. Save as many inverts as I can. Thanks for the advice.
 

Form or function: Do you consider your rock work to be art or the platform for your coral?

  • Primarily art focused.

    Votes: 20 7.8%
  • Primarily a platform for coral.

    Votes: 44 17.3%
  • A bit of each - both art and a platform.

    Votes: 173 67.8%
  • Neither.

    Votes: 12 4.7%
  • Other.

    Votes: 6 2.4%
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