Dead LR and live sand?

[Adequate]

I have my live rock and live sand, and a few hitchhiking crabs, sitting in buckets of water, after my tank sprung a leak. No aeration or heater, and it's winter. Will this kill the bacteria colonised the rock and sand? Prior to the unfortunate breakage of the tank, the sand had been in the tank for a few months, so I'm assuming that bacteria had already established itself within the sand bed. Likewise for the live rock, it was cured and then placed in the tank a while ago, so it too had a bacteria colony. Now I'm worried that once I get it all in a new tank, will this cause spikes in ammonia and nitrate from any potential die-off? Btw I've kept live sand and live rock in these conditions during similar tank breakages and they came out okay.

 

[Katrina71]

I have read people keeping things under the same conditions and had coral survive. I would do it. Just keep testing and see when everything stabilizes in the tank.

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

You will have a cycle once you set up the new tank. My question is why are you springing leaks? Make sure your tank is level and your stand is sturdy. You can also place your rock in a larger container with a heater and power head.

 

[brandon429]

bac only have to be kept wet to stay alive, they don’t need our temps or feed.
You could keep your rocks in storage for ten years not even fed and the bac won’t die

It’s not winter, it’s warm out so that part confused me above, even if it was winter it won’t kill the bac, corals need heat not the bac. Frozen koi ponds don’t recycle when spring thaws happen or the whole pond would die

If you stored your rocks in the dirty condition vs cleaning out the detritus then they may leak ammonia for a while and cause confusing readings depending on when you test, but it won’t be due to lack of bacteria

In our cycling thread, we have a three year example of rocks being stored like this already passing an oxidation test

 

[Adequate]

I have read people keeping things under the same conditions and had coral survive. I would do it. Just keep testing and see when everything stabilizes in the tank.

I will :)

You will have a cycle once you set up the new tank. My question is why are you springing leaks? Make sure your tank is level and your stand is sturdy. You can also place your rock in a larger container with a heater and power head.

Leaks springing coz I'm just a clumsy idiot :confused: I usually only give livestock aeration and a heat source, didn't occur to me until now that live rock bac might need that too

It’s not winter, it’s warm out so that part confused me above

I'm in the Southern Hemisphere :)

bac only have to be kept wet to stay alive, they don’t need our temps or feed.
You could keep your rocks in storage for ten years not even fed and the bac won’t die

...even if it was winter it won’t kill the bac, corals need heat not the bac. Frozen koi ponds don’t recycle when spring thaws happen or the whole pond would die

If you stored your rocks in the dirty condition vs cleaning out the detritus then they may leak ammonia for a while and cause confusing readings depending on when you test, but it won’t be due to lack of bacteria

In our cycling thread, we have a three year example of rocks being stored like this already passing an oxidation test

I reckon I'll add all the rock and sand back first, leave it for a couple days, and then test params before adding fish back.

I don't have any corals in this system, if I did, I'd put it in the 2 gallon pico temporarily.

Reassuring to know that live rock is tough as nails :mad:

Thanks people

 

[Katrina71]

It might not hurt to add some bottled bacteria from the start. I always do. Biospira is the one I use.

 

[Adequate]

Then it's a good thing I have Seachem Stability on hand :).