critter quantity and LR

[woninil]

I ordered some crabs and snails and decided to get 5 lbs of LR since I had to pay shipping anyhow-it was cheap(3.99/lb)so I wasnt expecting miracles, but figured I had paid that for ornamental dead stuff at LFS anyway

Arrived yesterday-critters look great-bigger than I expected. The Halloween hermit looks like a tarantula-very active so far

The LR looks dead. All the directions about scrubbing and removing dead matter? Dont think so-theres a tad of green algae stain and no smell

It was packaged in 2 plastic bags with wet newsprint-shipped overnight

Ive put it in a bucket of saltwater with a air pump and hose from FW stuff I had around

Question is-do I really need to do this for 1-3 weeks if I continue to get no smell or indication of death/life???

I certainly dont want to risk my fish, but the directions I keep finding to cure even cured rock before adding to a fish inhabited tank seem like overkill for only 5 lbsof rock that appears to be dead

Is there something Im not seeing perhaps?

And, someone else eluded to this-how much do these critters contribute to the bioload?

It seems like there are pretty stringent restrictions on the number of fish but then hey, get about 50 snails.........to a newbie, that seems like conflicting advice, KWIM?

I got a porcelain crab and cleaner shrimp. Are they like another snail? half a fish?

Could I add more crabs? As cool as the porcelain looks, he is TOTALLY camouflaged by my substrate sand/shell mix and Im thinking a green one or Sally Lightfoot would show up

Thanks in advance

 

[geoffgarcia]

was the rock already cured when you bought it?

BTW your getting ripped off paying 4$ per pound for dead rock at your LFS.
You can get 50lbs of dead rock on ebay for like 20$
then just buy a bag or two of garf grunge to seed your dead rock (turn your filters off for a few days) and your rock will come to life.

Granted, getting cured live rock is much more fun because you never know what will surface!

 

[Cearbhaill]

Question is-do I really need to do this for 1-3 weeks if I continue to get no smell or indication of death/life???

Test the water it is soaking in.