How long can live rock be out of water?

[Wolf89]

I have 40 lbs of dry rock and 15 lbs in an established tank. I am thanking down the established tank and upgrading. I am making my aquascape and I want it to be perfect. I have gotten a really cool scape with the dry rock, but I need to incorporate the live rock. My question is how long can I have the live rock out scaping and drilling for acrylic rods into?

 

[ihavecrabs]

Multiple answers and options:

1. Live rock can be kept moist and it will keep a majority of the rock alive. You can use wet newspaper or a misting bottle to spray it down with saltwater to keep it moist while your rods/epoxy dry.
2. If you allow the surface to dry, you will kill surface living bacteria; however, much of the bacteria we desire lives inside the rock crevices which take a long while to dry out. Bacteria is also pretty great and surviving so little to worry about there.
3. You don't necessarily need to incorporate the live rock into your structure. You can place it next to the rockwork temporarily to seed the dry rock, put it in your sump, etc. (I took this route)

I have always found that rock structures built with dry rock, rods, and epoxy tend to be the strongest and can be cycled after they are built and the epoxy has cured. My system took about 6 months to start seeing coralline algae and by 12 months it was covered. Dry rock systems can go through some wicked ugly phases even after proper preparation, the difference is how long they last and how much easier they are to get through with proper prep.

Good luck!

 

[Wolf89]

@ihavecrabs thank you for the great advice. I think I will put it into the sump, that is a great idea, thank you!

 

[Reef Racket]

Multiple answers and options:

1. Live rock can be kept moist and it will keep a majority of the rock alive. You can use wet newspaper or a misting bottle to spray it down with saltwater to keep it moist while your rods/epoxy dry.
2. If you allow the surface to dry, you will kill surface living bacteria; however, much of the bacteria we desire lives inside the rock crevices which take a long while to dry out. Bacteria is also pretty great and surviving so little to worry about there.
3. You don't necessarily need to incorporate the live rock into your structure. You can place it next to the rockwork temporarily to seed the dry rock, put it in your sump, etc. (I took this route)

I have always found that rock structures built with dry rock, rods, and epoxy tend to be the strongest and can be cycled after they are built and the epoxy has cured. My system took about 6 months to start seeing coralline algae and by 12 months it was covered. Dry rock systems can go through some wicked ugly phases even after proper preparation, the difference is how long they last and how much easier they are to get through with proper prep.

Good luck!

I read somewhere that live rock left out to long can become live again if introduced to an established tank over time? Not sure where I read this or if it’s even accurate... think it was a random google search answer. Anyways, I just replaced my live rock with some new and nicer pieces but thought about breaking down some of the old ones for a mushroom island or something.... any thoughts on how long I have to make this decision? Will the live rock come back if it sat out over night? Anything helps I’m just brainstorming rather than just throwing out this live rock.

Thanks

 

[ApoIsland]

You don't necessarily need to incorporate the live rock into your structure. You can place it next to the rockwork temporarily to seed the dry rock, put it in your sump, etc. (I took this route)

This is the best advice. Put the established rock in the sump and go with all new dry rock in the display that is glued together. I went this route when i had some pest mantis shrimp and other crabs I didn’t want to try and catch. Packed a 40 breeder sump to the brim with the original live rock once my new rock structures were all made and cured. Over the course of a year or so I ended up slowly getting rid of all that old live rock in the sump.