Sitting at the airport waiting to pick up 200lbs of kp aquatics premium live rock how exciting !!!!

[((FORDTECH))]

So most of the day been setting up the 40 breeder had to build temporary stand and drilled the tank to add the overflow box. Then added a mess sock to the drain to help catch stuff and discard what is not wanted. Also added 1 gen4 g30 to the tub starting low light for now will build up over few days. Will also add a g4 to the 40 breeder.

 

[((FORDTECH))]

Few updated pics with the skimmer in and legs for extra support for the 40 gallon on top. I was gunna just let it go without any legs but decided better safe then sorry and for the extra 10$ well worth it.

 

[((FORDTECH))]

Wow did not expect so much skuz so early in the game.

 

[JGT]

I bought 300+ pounds of KP several years back. Premium, fully submerged, airport pickup. Was a new setup but had no ammonia and zero die off and set it up like it was an active tank. Skimmer, gyres, heaters, lighting, return pump. Nothing got ground up. Kept it fallow of fish and corals for a couple of months. Pulled out a couple of mantis and fireworms. Left the pistols, Eunice ( small and not all are bad) crabs ( mostly Mithrax) and all the other goodies. To keep and proliferate all the organisms, I found dosing Phyto really made a huge difference.

 

[((FORDTECH))]

So if I ever did this again I know 1 thing I did that I would do different. Not sure if it is the reason for my die off. Kind off upsetting cause I don’t even hear the pistol shrimps popping anymore I assume they are all dead
So when I set this up I used all the water from the boxes. Took the rocks out placed them in the tub and then poured all the water and critters right in the 100 gallon tub. Then after all rocks and rock water was in tub I doubled the water level with fresh mixed salt water. Then when woke up this morning doubled it again. I’m wondering if my issue with such die off was from using the water from the bags for half of my first day water. When I should have not used any of the bag water and only used fresh mixed saltwater. When I did this I was thinking there was no smell the water was fine and by keeping the water I was keeping a lot of the small critters and bacteria that I wanted to begin with. Anyways maybe I’m overthinking this. But In my head I wasn’t gunna go thru this die off and cloudy water but evidently I am

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

I did u raise the salinity? Been checking that? I woulda done a water change and ran a cpl.small powerheads and the skimmer.
D

 

[((FORDTECH))]

I did u raise the salinity? Been checking that? I woulda done a water change and ran a cpl.small powerheads and the skimmer.
D

I honestly never checked salinity of water rocks was shipped in. My salinity was 1.025. I guess if the bag water was lower it would have been worse of salinity spike if I did not use it and just went straight rocks into my water

 

[((FORDTECH))]

Well I’m guessing this is very bad. Maxed out at 3

 

[((FORDTECH))]

I did u raise the salinity? Been checking that? I woulda done a water change and ran a cpl.small powerheads and the skimmer.
D

Wow what a noob thing of me to do!! I never even checked salinity. It could have been way low shocking everything when I added mine at 1.025.

 

[JGT]

Wow what a noob thing of me to do!! I never even checked salinity. It could have been way low shocking everything when I added mine at 1.025.

Def don’t want to add the water from the boxes. Salinity is one thing but also I would bet that the box water would be high in ammonia.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

So if I ever did this again I know 1 thing I did that I would do different. Not sure if it is the reason for my die off. Kind off upsetting cause I don’t even hear the pistol shrimps popping anymore I assume they are all dead
So when I set this up I used all the water from the boxes. Took the rocks out placed them in the tub and then poured all the water and critters right in the 100 gallon tub. Then after all rocks and rock water was in tub I doubled the water level with fresh mixed salt water. Then when woke up this morning doubled it again. I’m wondering if my issue with such die off was from using the water from the bags for half of my first day water. When I should have not used any of the bag water and only used fresh mixed saltwater. When I did this I was thinking there was no smell the water was fine and by keeping the water I was keeping a lot of the small critters and bacteria that I wanted to begin with. Anyways maybe I’m overthinking this. But In my head I wasn’t gunna go thru this die off and cloudy water but evidently I am

I did the same thing. My initial holding tank consisted of about half bag water and half new seawater. I don't see an issue with it

 

[((FORDTECH))]

I did the same thing. My initial holding tank consisted of about half bag water and half new seawater. I don't see an issue with it

OK well then I guess I wasn’t the only one who thought that was a good idea I’m just not sure why I had such a day off so far

 

[((FORDTECH))]

I did a 40 gallon water change last night about 4 o’clock in the morning and then another 40 gallon water change this morning about 10 AM before I left for work I’ll do another 40 gallon water change when I get home from work I don’t know what else to do besides that

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

I did a 40 gallon water change last night about 4 o’clock in the morning and then another 40 gallon water change this morning about 10 AM before I left for work I’ll do another 40 gallon water change when I get home from work I don’t know what else to do besides that

Are you reading Ammonia? If not, why the aggressive water changes?

 

[((FORDTECH))]

Are you reading Ammonia? If not, why the aggressive water changes?

Above I sent pic of Hanna LR ammonia was 3and flashing meaning it’s higher then that. Along with the smell of rot

 

[slythy]

I think its expected to get some die off of any live rock thats shipped with so much life its unavoidable. I would just do some water changes and run carbon to eliminate the smells. Who knows whats in the rocks. I also dont think you would have a massive issue with changing salinity for most things. If that life can be plucked out of the ocean, thrown in a holding tank, into another holding tank and then shipped and you still have inverts living they are going to be pretty resilient ones.

3.0+ ammonia is pretty high, do a 50% water change and see if it gets under that 3.0ppm. Or you can do a 100% water change. I dont think you are going to shock anything more than it already has been.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Above I sent pic of Hanna LR ammonia was 3and flashing meaning it’s higher then that. Along with the smell of rot

Ooh Snap. Yeah that's pretty high.

 

[d2mini]

So I’m all of a sudden starting to have a very strange feeling on this whole experience I’m wondering if anyone can chime in on this please my thoughts on the smell and the cloudy water are that and I’m I making pretty much blended up soup of all the micro organisms in this water by having all of the powerheads and pumps in here circulating the water does anyone understand what I’m trying to say? Should I be using air stones instead of pumps for circulation I don’t know why am feeling like I’m blending up everything into a stew and that’s why it’s cloudy and smelly

I'm reading through this thread now and as soon as you had mentioned the smell I got concerned.
I've never experienced this in any of my tanks that were set up using TBS rock and sand.
Then again, they were all started new. All TBS rock and all TBS sand. The sand i believe is super important. So much good bacteria and biodiversity that may help with that intitial bit of die off.

How's the ammonia levels? You should probably be doing some massive water changes.
If this is in a separate tank I'd be doing near 100% changes.

 

[Tavero]

Dude you just bought 1,000 micro shrimp with that rock. Are you hoping to keep everything?

There is organic matter matted to the rock, clogging the pores and decreasing affectiveness. Even if you tried, you couldn't eradicate the good stuff you brought in on the rock.

That's...utter nonsense. If the organic matter is releasing enough ammonia it will kill all macro organisms in the rock. Unless he wants a tank full of sulfur bacteria he needs to remove the organic matter without poisoning the stones with ammonia.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

That's...utter nonsense. If the organic matter is releasing enough ammonia it will kill all macro organisms in the rock. Unless he wants a tank full of sulfur bacteria he needs to remove the organic matter without poisoning the stones with ammonia.

If you were here from the beginning of the conversation, you would have seen that there were zero readings of ammonia prior to this comment being made. Those came a day later.

You're also clearly misinterpreting what I'm saying. Everybody is well aware that if left to its own devices in a massive ammonia spike you will be killing things off. That's not at all what the specific comment was about. We were discussing losing micro shrimp.