am I close to being able to add a clown?

[PotatoPig]

excuse me, the rock was pulled from a water filtration tank at LFS and delivered to me in a water vessel and they specifically told me it was live rock, the owner of the store, a very busy store in the county. The busiest very specifically told me it was live rock. I just can't imagine that he would have a reason to lie.
So my reputable LFS is committing fraud, misrepresenting what they are selling me? i'm not sure if we can get past this text unless we can get past that accusation. but I suppose it wouldn't bepast the bale of possibilities of Lfs casually mischaracterizing something. how sure are you? the otherwise i'll take them to task
besides that, I appreciate the values provided on measurements I'm looking for.

I don’t think anyone is accusing anyone, especially you, of anything. More that folks are trying to look out for you here as from the evidence available at the time it looked a lot like you have Liferock or similar.

Liferock and their parallels are painted dry rock, and are all the very distinctive purple color you have, and both the companies that make them and many (not all) vendors have a habit of blurring the description between these products and actual live rock.

A LOT of new folks show up on here with these products under the impression they have live rock, when they don’t. IMO there’s nothing inherently wrong with the products, but there are differences in both what they bring to the tank and how you need to treat initial setup, which is important for your question at hand.

If these were from a big tank they keep at the LFS then you’ve got aquacultured rock, which is fine, though part of why people jumped to assuming it’s LifeRock or similar is the cycle recommendations you’ve been given - this rock should be pre-cycled and have zero die-off as it was kept warm and in water the whole time. It’s weird you’ve been told to wait weeks, perhaps it’s more the store is being highly cautious.

 

[NancyFish]

I just got a G2 max 200 series set up with the help of LFS bout five days ago. Everything's OK except the reef mats not working . I've got to get it connected properly, LFS i think connected it wrong. I've got 30 LBS a live rock in there. (Also had a couple other posts that may have been viewed by some of the readers of this thread.) i've been adding a cap full of microbacter, and about half the amount of the recommended dosage of Dr. Tim's ammonia, my LFS told me to do half the amount so it's about I think 80 drops. I am aware there is a opinion of some that if there's live rock, there's no need for any other substrate right now like I've been doing, but then I didn't think the microbacter or ammonia additions would hurt. I'm adding every morning Dr. Tim's so this evening I measured the nitrites they came out to zero which I think I was happy about. But I measured the ammonia. It was towards the bottom of the scale, about 5P/M. so it appears right now the bacterial colonies are not yet cycling the ammonia fully and I guess I'm not yet able to put a clown fish with is that a amount of ammonia could damage their gills. But would I be close? I mean 12 hours after adding Dr. Tim's I have 5/m of ammonia is that getting pretty close to where I can add my first clownish maybe? maybe I don't need to add Dr. T and that ammonia level will go way down. Also, of course I have not measured pH but I'm presuming pH is gonna be within the threshold and I will measure that tomorrow. Also, I got refractometer to measure, but I'm presuming salinity is within range but will confirm this tomorrow . I can also measure to be sure . Have not measured nitrates as I think it may be premature. I still have a lot to learn about the settings for LED, it's a bit complex to learn the settings, scheduling values for the various moon, white and blue, etc. As well as best setting for wave run. But I'm sure if I keep them at a minimal It would probably be OK. I don't think I need the reefmat working yet so I'm probably OK.

also regarding homing invertebrates, little lobster, other crustaceans, shrimp, starfish, non-fish non-coral species, are they more robust and able to tolerate a little bit of ammonia or nitrates? Obviously, if I home them in, they will start to affect and bio waste into the system and also maybe contribute to the system as well and their on ways.
thanks all!

How’s your reefmat

 

[Ballyhoo]

it's good thanks except i put some activated charcoal per Red Sea and it picked it all up. I backed way off on the charcoal.