ammonia/cycle

my tank has been cycling for 3 weeks it started a 2.0 ammonia and droped to 1.0 i did a 50% water change yesterday bc i had 15gal of water i needed to use. i tested today and its down to .5. its a 29gal tank with 30lbs of live sand im hopeing to get abt 40lbs of live rock this week. what should i do now.

 

Keep waiting and keep researching!!!!

If your LR is out of water for more than an hour or two, it is going to become "dead" LR and will need to be cycled again. In this case, you would be looking at roughly one more month to be initially cycled. If you LR comes from a local source (an hour or so away) or if it is shipped/transported WET (preferably submerged!) then you would likely not see any die-off and corresponding cycling.

 

im hoping to get it from a guy that lives 20min from my house. hes turning his tank into freashwater. if i cant im going to buy dry rock.

 

Sounds like a good plan.

If it's only out of the water for a few minutes like that - you can just be sure that the SG is the same as the tank it came from and you can transfer it directly with no acclimation. This will help to ensure you dont even have any die-off.

But if the locally sourced rock does not work out - base rock is 100% the way to go IMHO>

 

yep he has 40lbs of live rock for free. he also has a bunch of ssnails and crabs. could i get a few or would they die in the tank?

 

Agree 100% with above post.

I would add, to make sure this rock has no aiptasia, majano, algae besides coralline, hydroids. It may be quality cured rock, you just want to make sure, one persons neglected tank does not become your nightmare. It's really important to make sure you have no pest because they can and will make it through the cycle.

I advise against adding any live animals to the tank as long as it's cycling. Go slow and give it a couple more weeks, you will be much happier in the long run.

 

Breaking down reef tank-Free live rock and critters
thats the post on craigslist

 

I would go with baserock that is dead.

That LR looks like it will be a nightmare.

He is already telling you the rock has epic algae problems.

For the money, even for FREE, this LR is not free, the ammount of time and money you'll need to invest will greatly outvalue the supposedly "free" rock.

Go with base rock and you can avoid all of this guy's problems which he is trying to pass onto you.

The fact that he is giving away that rock for free would be a red flag to me. Even privately you can get 2-3 dollars a pound (minimum!!!!) for liverock. Why would this guy give away $100.00 worth of rock for free unless it was in terrible condition?


That's just how I look at it - knowing how cheap and effective base rock is from someone like reefcleaners.org

The cost of that rock would be the cost of extra measures you would endure to rid of someone else's problem off of "free" rock.

 

could i get it and put it in a grey tote with a powerhead and leave it alone. would that kill the algae? i will buy rock for my dt i will only need abt 35lbs.
could i take some of the inverts?

 

I would at least get the rock... I may not use it now but it is free.