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

[KrisReef]

When live rock is dying, set up a 5 gallon bucket and “Swish” ( shake, rock and roll?) or agitate the rock to remove dying plants, algae, sponges, etc and reduce the rot in the main tub.
Then a100% water change and put the rinsed rock in the clean water.

Don’t worry about what is going to die, just try to keep the survivors happy. In the end that’s all you can do anyway. If you feel better worrying about what you can not change then I’ll send you my wife who is an expert at this concernism. I can use the break myself. LMK?

 

[Tavero]

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.

I havent seen this post yesterday, but my answer would have been the same regardless of that.

Bad smelling live rock is a bad sign regardless of inicial ammonia measurements. Here in europa we never had an import stop of life rock like you guys had in USA, so we have more experience with fouling rocks.

Sometimes microorganisms inside of the rocks can start dying for different (sometimes unavoidable) reasons. Low oxygen, rocks sucking air and drying out from inside ect. In that case the anaerobic bacteria will start to release hydrogen sulfite which will kill even more organisms that will release ammonia. That was the bad smell he discovered yesterday.
Saying he couldn't eradicate the good stuff is a very poor advice, even if you didn't mean any harm.

The rocks didn't need more flow but more oxygen

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

I havent seen this post yesterday, but my answer would have been the same regardless of that.

Bad smelling live rock is a bad sign regardless of inicial ammonia measurements. Here in europa we never had an import stop of life rock like you guys had in USA, so we have more experience with fouling rocks.

Sometimes microorganisms inside of the rocks can start dying for different (sometimes unavoidable) reasons. Low oxygen, rocks sucking air and drying out from inside ect. In that case the anaerobic bacteria will start to release hydrogen sulfite which will kill even more organisms that will release ammonia. That was the bad smell he discovered yesterday.
Saying he couldn't eradicate the good stuff is a very poor advice, even if you didn't mean any harm.

The rocks didn't need more flow but more oxygen

Are you aware of how this rock is gathered?

They dive for it, then throw it in an empty tub on a small drive boat where it is exposed to the air and sun, for hours.

Some die off IS expected. Die off makes a foul smell. To quote the great Daniel Cormier "There's levels to this ****"

I've successfully cured live rock from this supplier, and this lease no more than 6 months ago. It Does need blasted with flow. Grab some yourself and tell me I'm wrong.

You can consider the advice poor out of context and the next day. Doesn't make any difference to me. I stand by that with a wavemaker or twenty in with it, you aren't going to be able to chop up all of the pistol shrimp, crabs, and other life on it, because THAT'S what the specific comment was to.

 

[areefer01]

Ford - I believe we did this a bit differently and on a smaller scale. My 25 lbs vs your 200 so my thoughts may not apply. On that note I didn't have any bad smell. Mine was in my 18 gallon (give or take) refugium and there was no aggressive flow. Flow was from a single sicce power head on low. So nothing got blended if that makes sense.

If you have things getting pulled into pumps then that will be messing with your nutrients and possibly ammonia. I see a skimmer was noted and that is a great idea. Testing for ammonia would also be good. Another thought is if you can protect the pumps or isolate so less risk or reduce risk of sucking in creatures would be good. I personally wanted the life.

Of course with the exception of the things we don't want.

 

[Tavero]

Are you aware of how this rock is gathered?

They dive for it, then throw it in an empty tub on a small drive boat where it is exposed to the air and sun, for hours.

Some die off IS expected. Die off makes a foul smell. To quote the great Daniel Cormier "There's levels to this ****"

I've successfully cured live rock from this supplier, and this lease no more than 6 months ago. It Does need blasted with flow. Grab some yourself and tell me I'm wrong.

You can consider the advice poor out of context and the next day. Doesn't make any difference to me. I stand by that with a wavemaker or twenty in with it, you aren't going to be able to chop up all of the pistol shrimp, crabs, and other life on it, because THAT'S what the specific comment was to.

I know how rock is gathered. That's why i wrote sometimes its unavoidable that it starts fouling. In that case the affected stones need to be removed.

And no you do not need to blast it with flow.
Curing life rock
That's how the biggest supplier of life rock in europa is curing rock to prepare it for sale after it was imported.

Even if you aren't going to be able to chop up all of the pistol shrimp and crabs...why take the chances to chop up even one?

 

[((FORDTECH))]

Now I wanna go home from work and put covers on all my powerheads lol

 

[((FORDTECH))]

Just picked up some of this figured it couldn’t hurt along with more water changes

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Even if you aren't going to be able to chop up all of the pistol shrimp and crabs...why take the chances to chop up even one?

You say it doesn't need blasted with flow yet you have likely never touched the specific rock we are discussing. Live rock varies Greatly as I'm sure you know. Order 10 pounds to Europa, and let's discuss.

I've seen the claim this comes from. They have videos collecting. It's a slow flowing SILT bed. The pores of the rock are deeply packed with garbage. Blowing the pores clear releases organics and makes the rock actually able to work better. Why Wouldn't you want the best performance out of something that cost $10/ pound?

Of Coarse managing Ammonia is important. I never claimed it wasn't. My intent of your original quote was and has been clarified.

OP isn't going to kill all of the shrimp in the rock by using wave makers. Period.

 

[((FORDTECH))]

You say it doesn't need blasted with flow yet you have likely never touched the specific rock we are discussing. Live rock varies Greatly as I'm sure you know. Order 10 pounds to Europa, and let's discuss.

I've seen the claim this comes from. They have videos collecting. It's a slow flowing SILT bed. The pores of the rock are deeply packed with garbage. Blowing the pores clear releases organics and makes the rock actually able to work better. Why Wouldn't you want the best performance out of something that cost $10/ pound?

Of Coarse managing Ammonia is important. I never claimed it wasn't. My intent of your original quote was and has been clarified.

OP isn't going to kill all of the shrimp in the rock by using wave makers. Period.

No but I’m gunna kill all of them with the high ammonia

 

[((FORDTECH))]

So upsetting, so expensive

 

[((FORDTECH))]

I literally bought all of this rock just to put in my sump just for the beneficial bacteria it was going to give me and now I’m finding out that I’ve literally killed it all and wasted $3000 in the process

 

[((FORDTECH))]

I still have a little hope though because I haven’t seen any of the hand size starfish dead yet yesterday they were climbing all over the rocks and still alive today I’m not sure I haven’t seen any of them there was a good 20 at least yesterday but for what it’s worth if some of the starfish make it I’m gonna assume some of the bacteria did as well

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

No but I’m gunna kill all of them with the high ammonia

Yes, which 100% should for sure be managed. I've never said ammonia isn't an issue and should be ignored.

I will gladly say that the micro shrimp your wavemakers are chopping up. Should not be able to produce enough ammonia that 150 POUNDS of ocean direct live rock cannot manage.

you're experiencing a level of spikes that I never saw with my rock. I barely elevated above zero.

You also have not killed all your bacteria...

 

[((FORDTECH))]

Yes, which 100% should for sure be managed. I've never said ammonia isn't an issue and should be ignored.

I will gladly say that the micro shrimp your wavemakers are chopping up. Should not be able to produce enough ammonia that 150 POUNDS of ocean direct live rock cannot manage.

you're experiencing a level of spikes that I never saw with my rock. I barely elevated above zero.

You also have not killed all your bacteria...

I’m trying to understand why this happened and I just cannot come up with any answer. Within a matter of 2 to 3 hours all the rocks were removed from the boxes and placed into the tub with the tank water about 30 gallons and I added about 40 gallons to that making it about 70 gallons of water with the rock . I added an ink bird controller with a heater set to 78 I checked to make sure that did not malfunction and the graph shows it did not and then I added 4 medium sized powerheads one on each side. Everything was fine when went to bed I woke up 7 hours later in the morning to the smell and the cloudiness

 

[((FORDTECH))]

I’m not sure what I should have done different

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Was the water getting cloudy with all of the powerheads moving water around?

I would assume knowing nothing other than was stated here, that you have dislodged a large amount of deposited organics on a large order of rock. Once exposed those organics are going to start breaking down. Ammonia being the first natural byproduct of that.

I don't think you did anything wrong. You haven't destroyed your expensive rock. Change out the water as often as you need to lower the ammonia and keep on keeping on.

 

[StatelineReefer]

You said you had a lot of sponges on that rock, Ford? If they were exposed to any air, that will be your die off. Skim wet for a few hours.

 

[((FORDTECH))]

You said you had a lot of sponges on that rock, Ford? If they were exposed to any air, that will be your die off. Skim wet for a few hours.

Yes there was plenty of sponges that was airborne when I took the rocks from the boxes and placed them into the container some of them sit for a few minutes even 20 minutes before they were covered with the water. Yes I’ve had a scammer running since yesterday and it’s pulling out weird orange-ish brown sludge

 

[((FORDTECH))]

Just tested ammonia again it’s still over 3ppm smh

 

[((FORDTECH))]

Smell is less and it’s less cloudy