new to live rock

C

cioutlaw

AC Members
Dec 31, 2005
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tank (55gal) was set up a week with an undergravel filter which was removed(thought it was a good time to upgrade) 36 hrs ago along with the crushed coral before removing amonia was at 1.0, I then added & a live sand floor, 60lbs of live rock & an cannister. Now 36hrs later I have amonnia at 8.0!! ...I got the live rock from a local store (that I trust) I was told it wasnt nessasary to clean or cure..I did dunk it in a bucket of aquarium salt water to get rid of anything loose. I now wonder how fresh this stuff was, i guess i should have asked more questions.

Is this normal or is it because there is dead stuff in the rock? How long should i expect the ammonia level to come down? I havent seen any critters yet or anything else that looks alive. there is some plant material that might come around & I have some sort of grey spongy looking thing attached to a rock(see below)

liverock1.JPG
 
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Just give it a couple of week(2-3) and you should be fine!Your live rock looks pretty normal to me.Do not do any water changes right now.Just give it time to settle.It would be almost impossible for your rock not to have anything else on them.
 
You won't see anything alive for awhile with the ammonia levels you've got.

The ammonia spike came from die-off on the live rock. Give it some time and continue with the cycle.

Don't worry, everything's still good.

You can tell the amount of die-off on live rock (how "cured" it is) simply be sniffing it: the stinkier, the more die-off; the more die-off, the longer time to cure.

Some die-off is inevitable. The simple act of removing the rock from the LFS tank and transporting it home with kill things like sponges.
 
Update...Ammonia levels came down to 0 within a few days. i have some life on the rock already too. Thanks for the responses.
 
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