Live rock in freshwater

kamikaze_fish

kamikaze_fish

AC Members
Aug 18, 2008
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Kansas
I have multiple parts to this newb question.

1. What are the repercussions of putting live rock in a freshwater tank?

2. What if the rock hasn't been in water for over a year? Does that damage it? Does it become just a normal rock then?

3. How do I determine if it really was live rock? I know it was a sw aquarium previously and I'm cleaning everything up to make it fw. As I examined the rock, it looke like it had several good holes in it for hiding spots which is what makes me think it probably was live rock.

I plan to boil the rock but figured I should do a little research first.
 
I am not sure about all fw fish, but I have rock in my tank of mbuna cichlids that used to be live rock in a salt water aquarium and all of my fish in that tank are fine. I even have some "steaking" their claim on it. It seems like any other rock I have in the tank, grows a bit of algae, etc...I would think it should be ok for species that like a little salt in there water. Maybe someone else can help more
 
live rock from SW tank in a FW is generally not a good idea. There is a FW coraline algae that's native to african lakes but it's hard to find at a LFS. Most times I've seen it, the LFS got it by accident by mixing water from the fish supplier with thiers when they cut bags and spontaneously the tank got these red spots that could only be cleaned by razor. It did take a while for the algae to form though it was always in the tanks they stored cichlids.
 
kamikaze_fish said:
I have multiple parts to this newb question.

1. What are the repercussions of putting live rock in a freshwater tank?

Increased hardness, pH increase maybe, and ammonia/nitrite spikes

2. What if the rock hasn't been in water for over a year? Does that damage it? Does it become just a normal rock then?

Then it's not live rock anymore, it's base rock. Plain boring calcium-based rock. No ammonia or nitrite spikes, but still affects the hardness of the water

3. How do I determine if it really was live rock? I know it was a sw aquarium previously and I'm cleaning everything up to make it fw. As I examined the rock, it looke like it had several good holes in it for hiding spots which is what makes me think it probably was live rock.

If it's been out of water for a year, it doesn't matter if it was live at one time. Everything in/on it has already died and decomposed. It will act the same as if you added crushed coral to the tank.

I plan to boil the rock but figured I should do a little research first.
Click to expand...
my thoughts in bold.
 
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