Live Rock Question

B

Bigfish

Question 1: When seeding base rock with live rock do you need to have the water at a certain temp and does there have to be a light - or can it be cold water and no light etc just for the purpose of seeding that base rock so that I can put it in a tank later on.

Question 2: Does the water that it is in ( I will have it in a 55g tub) have to be RO H20 or can it be tap that is treated and salted.

Question 2: When seeding live rock do you have to have a protein Skimmer? I know you need flow.

My plan is to seed base rock with live rock bought from a store or off the fourm, but was not sure if it would seed with out a light or in cold water.

Or just give me the break down Thanks for the help in advance.
 
1. I think it will need to be at normal operating temperature since what you are seeding are "live". I personally would recomend lights.
2. I would not use tap for anything ever. Algea problems galore.
2. skimmer??? DOn't know
 
how i do my rock is ........ get a big pot of RO water put it on the stove ,bring to a boil , drop in the rock and boil it for 30 min. pull it out and put it in a tub at room temp , fill with salt water add power head and a table shrimp 48 hours later pull shrimp out and use a test kit to watch it cycle . after amonia gos to zero do a 50% water change and its ready and all pest free.
 
Eric that makes sense for getting it ready to seed, but might question was the right way to seed base rock not clean it. Tho you did bring up good points and I would have asked that question as well. Like the feedback thanks. So I guess now I need to know if I need a skimmer.
 
@Bigfish wrote:
Eric that makes sense for getting it ready to seed said:
IM SORRY i dont know what you meen by seed it . what do you want to seed it with? if you want it cycled and ready for your tank , folow the post and then if you want cocapods and bristle worms and such get some chio from a stable tank for your sump and your good that will seed it with the good stuf and keep the bad stuf out . hope this helps . if you do it this way you will only need a skimmer when you set it up after it cycles in your tank with all the water and sand and such.you will only need the little critters after your fish start doing there biss.
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You do not want to have lights, no need to grow nuisance algae all over the rock before you even put it in the tank. Keep it dark. You need saltwater at normal temperature and salinity with a small powerhead for flow. This time of year that means a heater, make sure the heater is some where rock does not break it. It would really only need a skimmer if you had a lot of die off, as in using all new live rock right out of the ocean. You may have to watch the ammonia levels just to make sure it cycles and that it does not get too nasty. You may have to do some small water changes depending on how long you plan on keeping it in the seeding container. It would be a good thing for you to add a couple of small fresh new live rock (10lbs) right from the ocean to get new biodiversity that may be missing from rock that has been in a tank for awhile.
 
Thanks guys. I will be buying lace rock from Wiz Q as my base and then adding about 50-75lbs of live rock from the LFS or others tanks to seed the Base Lace Rock. Will get about 300lbs when all said in done for my 160g tank.
 
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