Quarantine advice for live rock

[jonnywink]

If it's coming from a tank at the LFS that has fish and corals in it then yes you should quarantine it. Think of it like letting the rock lay fallow - you are just waiting for anything like velvet to die off. If it came from a big tub of wet rock then you should still quarantine it. There might still be unwanted things in there; generally those rocks are pretty sterile but contrary to what Brandon likes to post everywhere, he has not actually personally visited and audited every LFS on the planet so you really have no idea how long that rock has been wet or what it has been seeded with. They could have stuck it in there five minutes before you walked in the store. They could have broken down a customer's tank that was in the middle of a velvet outbreak and dumped all the rock in there. You just don't know. Frankly it's a waste - not only does it cost more per lb, but it weighs more because you're paying for the water too. But while you're quarantining it all you have to do to keep the bacteria alive is keep it wet. Ambient light is enough.

Unless you can source 'real' live rock (It does NOT need to come from the ocean. Any suitably mature and diverse tank is going to have all the microfauna you need) just get dry rock and a bottle. You'll end up in the same place and save a lot of money.

They have the rocks in a big trash can filled with water. Does that make a difference in the length of quarantine time?

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

They have the rocks in a big trash can filled with water. Does that make a difference in the length of quarantine time?

Assuming you're quarantining for fish disease, if the LFS rock has not been in the trash can 60 days (all of it, nothing new added), then there's a chance it could still have pathogens.

Edit: also assuming the LFS used fresh saltwater and not water from any tank with fish...)

 

[jonnywink]

Assuming you're quarantining for fish disease, if the LFS rock has not been in the trash can 60 days (all of it, nothing new added), then there's a chance it could still have pathogens.

Edit: also assuming the LFS used fresh saltwater and not water from any tank with fish...)

I set up one QT for fish only and one for inverts and figured I could maybe use it for a new piece of LR at the same time maybe. 60 day time?

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I set up one QT for fish only and one for inverts and figured I could maybe use it for a new piece of LR at the same time maybe. 60 day time?

Research the required fallow period for different fish diseases. That's how long you ideally will quarantine your rocks, inverts, etc.

Look at the threads from Jay Hemdal

 

[jonnywink]

Research the required fallow period for different fish diseases. That's how long you ideally will quarantine your rocks, inverts, etc.

Look at the threads from Jay Hemdal

Thank you.

 

[Reef By Steele]

If it's coming from a tank at the LFS that has fish and corals in it then yes you should quarantine it. Think of it like letting the rock lay fallow - you are just waiting for anything like velvet to die off. If it came from a big tub of wet rock then you should still quarantine it. There might still be unwanted things in there; generally those rocks are pretty sterile but contrary to what Brandon likes to post everywhere, he has not actually personally visited and audited every LFS on the planet so you really have no idea how long that rock has been wet or what it has been seeded with. They could have stuck it in there five minutes before you walked in the store. They could have broken down a customer's tank that was in the middle of a velvet outbreak and dumped all the rock in there. You just don't know. Frankly it's a waste - not only does it cost more per lb, but it weighs more because you're paying for the water too. But while you're quarantining it all you have to do to keep the bacteria alive is keep it wet. Ambient light is enough.

Unless you can source 'real' live rock (It does NOT need to come from the ocean. Any suitably mature and diverse tank is going to have all the microfauna you need) just get dry rock and a bottle. You'll end up in the same place and save a lot of money.

Getting from an established tank I agree is more like live rock. I definitely have rock that I got dry as a bone and now it has coralline, sponge, and other life.

Got to be in the right place at the right time to score mature tank rock.

 

[Hatuey]

90 days if you don't want to cut corners. then you'd fallow anything added just the same to keep up that protection protocol.

45 days was the new recommend after 90 but that's a shorter time, so I wouldn't choose it, I'd go the extra mile considering how bad diseases are nowadays.

What’s the point of getting live rock if you have to wait longer than just getting dry live rock? What am I missing here?

 

[brandon429]

because live rock shows up with a complete food web in place. you're waiting the extra days in case it has recently been cured among fish that didn't have preps, which can spread disease in the holding tank and then live rocks vector it out into new reefs when they're added. you'd select a fallow period for anything about to be added to a reef tank that is wet, from some other source, and apply that before you insert the items into your display.

dry rock doesn't need fallow after cycling/ adding common bottle bac and feed doesn't bring in disease/ when dry rocks get cycled they begin disease-free

patterns show live rock systems to be better at suppressing disease than dry rock ones, nobody knows why. if you read thousands of disease help threads here and on other forums those patterns emerge/ live rock also grows corals better than dry rock systems, they look better, quality live rock items have coralline and other algae-rejecting surfaces compared to dry rock setups that want to take on algae, since nothing else is there to outcompete it

live rock is better in every way than a dry rock system but you still wait the additional time for fallow unless you're sure it's already been held 45-90 days in a fishless system before it got to you

 

[blecki]

What’s the point of getting live rock if you have to wait longer than just getting dry live rock? What am I missing here?

There's no such thing as 'dry live rock'. If it's dry it's dead.

Usually if you get live rock it's the first thing in the tank and you have to wait for the cycle anyway; so by time the cycle finishes it's been properly QTed. If you get dry rock you have to start with bottled bacteria or something. It takes longer usually before the tank can handle a bioload, but there's no need to QT dead rock.

 

[jda]

Should I quarantine live rock from my LFS? If so, how and for how long.

Looks like a lot of mess on this thread - did you get your answer here? In water with heat and flow for the fallow period of whatever you want to avoid - fish disease forum can help with this.

You will need to add things to keep everything on the rock alive. Some members are so obsessed with just bacteria that they forget that there is more to tanks than this. If you have a tank already, then "juice" from frozen food is a good thing. Ammonium chloride will work too.

 

[jonnywink]

Looks like a lot of mess on this thread - did you get your answer here? In water with heat and flow for the fallow period of whatever you want to avoid - fish disease forum can help with this.

You will need to add things to keep everything on the rock alive. Some members are so obsessed with just bacteria that they forget that there is more to tanks than this. If you have a tank already, then "juice" from frozen food is a good thing. Ammonium chloride will work too.

Yes, I now have a good idea of what to do. Thank you, and I like your suggestion of the “juice” or ammonium chloride. I think I saw that sold by Dr. Tim.

 

[jda]

You can get your own ammonium chloride from Amazon with known purity. Probably a lot cheaper than Dr Tim too.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

You can get your own ammonium chloride from Amazon with known purity. Probably a lot cheaper than Dr Tim too.

Or you can just add some form of organic matter that can decay like a dead shrimp, fish food (ghost feeding), etc. Using ammonium chloride can work fine but can also cause problems if overdosed - which seems to happen quite often using the Dr. Tim method.

 

[jonnywink]

You can get your own ammonium chloride from Amazon with known purity. Probably a lot cheaper than Dr Tim too.

Thank you

 

[jonnywink]

Or you can just add some form of organic matter that can decay like a dead shrimp, fish food (ghost feeding), etc. Using ammonium chloride can work fine but can also cause problems if overdosed - which seems to happen quite often using the Dr. Tim method.

Thank you. This might be a better option.

 

[fishywishy]

I would quarantine for 2-3 months only if the rock was in contact with fish. Other than that you should be fine unless the rock comes with hitchhikers, if so you should quarantine and remove any unwanted ones.