Long term storage of LR

R

Richer

AC Members
Aug 7, 2002
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Edmonton, AB
A friend of mine used to keep a SW tank a few years back... but quit. He had a bunch of LR which he didn't want to sell or give away back then... so what he did was put them all in a spare 40 gallon tank with some saltwater in it. He has 4 powerheads in there for circulation, and has lights on for 12 hours a day. As far as he or I can tell, there is no livestock in the tank... just LR and micro algae. Recently, he's offered to give me all the LR I want.... I'm wondering, will it still be viable? or is it just as good as dead? How about the micro algae? Will it go away on its own in good tank conditions? I believe its hair algae thats on some of the rocks.

Thanks for the replies!
-Richer
 
I would think that if the pH, SG and temp were kept in check, in addition to the circulation and light, the rock should be fine. How long has it been kept this way? Did he do water changes every now and then?
 
I just talked to him... apparently, its been that way in one form or another for a few years... he's moved it from tank to tank every now and then. I'm not sure if he's done water changes or not... but I have seen him do water topoffs (not like that counts for much though). Maybe what I'll do is stick the rock in a rubbermaid container, add a little bit of ammonia to it and see what happens.

-Richer
 
What does it look like? Anything growing on it? I'd be worried that there wasn't a source of ammonia to keep the bacteria alive. I'd definitely challenge it before trusting it to be active. Even if it's not active, it could become so again, you'd just need to provide the ammonia source.
 
The rock looks pretty dead to me... its basically just white with some hair algae on it. No big deal though, I can always use it as some good base rock.

-Richer
 
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