Live Rock in 1.016???

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$eaba$$

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Sep 25, 2006
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So I came back from my LFS. They said play sand wouldn't be good for salt as it had no buffering capabilities. Everyone here said it would work, what do you say? Also, they testes my water with a refractometer and I'm at 1.016. Would I be able to keep some live rock in here until I get it up even more? I have a 15watt fluorescent 10,000K bulb and a bit of sunlight hits the tank from about 2:30-3:45.
Thanks
 

$eaba$$

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alright. Well, I bought some live rock from Petco, I know bad place, but my petco honestly is prtty good and they mostly know what they are talking about. I will put my liverock in my tank when I get to about 1.020 so probably tomorrow. This is my first piece of live rock; should I be scared tot ouch it, I used just plain old unused yellow rubber gloves just incase. I have never handled it and I don't know if some stuff will sting me. This piece was a "small" at petco, and they said it had been sitting in their liverock tank for about 3 months. It will be most likely cured right? Also, if I place two pieces of very holey lava rock next to it will it get seeded? Also, will my play sand eventually get seeded by this liverock? This liverock weighs I would say about 2.5 lbs and has some nice pink color to it in addition to a bit of normal grey, and I only paid $9.99. So, should I do a freshwater rinse with it or no? Right now I will sit it in a bucket until tomorrow evening when I put it in. The water it's in is about 1.022.
 

Jesshika

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I don't think you have to worry about anything stinging you on the rock. I've always handled mine with bare hands since I've had marine tanks for the past 7 years. And yes it should be cured rock and you don't want to rinse it in any freshwater, that will kill beneficial bacteria and bristle worms and the copepods. Basically everything good it will kill. I don't know much about using play sand but I would advise against it. I just wouldn't trust using it. I've heard about a lot of people who started out using play sand and switched to live sand later.
 

$eaba$$

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alright, but the play sands already in and it took me all day to transfer =/ Alot of other people said they used it here in the marine forums. I mean if need be, I could just buy a small pack of live sand and dump it on this sand right? Will the live rock seed the present sand though as well as very porous lava rock? Alright, so no freshwater rinse. Will it do fine in a bucket full of 1.022sg water overnight unheated? Also, its not near a window. It's on the opposite side of the room, just for like an hour it gets evening sun, not so powerful anyways, well probably half an hour. It should be good I think.
 

Jesshika

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I never used play sand so no personal experience but I know people have trouble with algae sometimes with it. JMO not to use it, but I'm sure lots of others have used it fine, I just prefer the natural live sand. The rock will be fine in a bucket overnight with that salinity. I've done that before no problem. If you have live rock it should seed the sand also and anything else you have in there =)
 

$eaba$$

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cool! How long do you think it should take to somewhat seed my whole tank? Will it even seed fake plastic live rocks? I'm guessing not.
 
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Jesshika

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Don't know about fake rocks, but it doesn't take long for the coepods living in the rock to transfer to the sand too. I just went through an aiptasia (anemone pest) infestation in my tank and had to boil all my live rock in freshwater. All the sand was still in the tank with lots of pods still there and after putting the rock back into the tank today, I already see them moving back into the rock =)
 

$eaba$$

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how do I know if there are copepods in the rock? Comeone Jesshika is doing all the work, no one else gonna answer?
 
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