omg did I just crash my tank??

Ill give you the short version first..

Basically I got a 240 gal Tenecor Concave Aquarium setup, including 5 foot Foam Fractionatater (the one the shoots a stream of water into a long tube of bio balls, a chiller, metal halide fixture and plenty more for about $300.

Along with all the equiptment came about 200 lbs of live rock. My problem is in my haste to keep the Live Rock alive (it spent about 7 hours in a garbage can and the temp dropped pretty low), I piled it up in my tank. My skimmer went nuts, Ive never seen that much filthy foam come out of my skimmer. The water went cloudy and im just really worried I released all kinds of ammonia and/or phosphates into the tank. The rock was old.. about 10 years old and in a tank that was basically let go. The guy just got fed up with it and really just let it go to crap for the last couple months. When I got there to pick up the stuff there was about 3 inches of black water in the tank from the filthy sand gettin stirred up. I talked to the guy about "cooking the rock", cuz I had come across that method a few times on forums but he said nah you dont have to.

Well im going to after seeing what happened to my skimmer. My question is did I mess my tank up? If I pull this rock out tomorrow morning and put it into a bin to "cook" can I avoid any real damage? This is just really bad timing cuz I have 4 fish that are fighting off an ich outbreak. Now theres all kinds of organics and god knows what in the water.

Anyone know what would be a better application for that huge SKimmer? I suppose I should try and get it up and running on my tank to suck otu whatever was released and then either leave it there or use it to aid in the cooking? Im assuming cooking is kinda like curing where you need circulation and a skimmer to remove organics. Luckily, unlike most rock in need of curing, this stuff has no odor. The sand had a hell of alot of odor though, that stuff is sitting in two buckets and I doubt Ill even use it.

Any reassuring words or advice guys?

 

you didnt use the old sand did you...

 

Sounds like it was well cycled live rock. You just stirred a bunch of crap out of it. You will most likely see at least a mini cycle but I don't think it will be too bad. Just keep emptying your skimmer and watch the water parameters closely.

 

lol nooo. Im not that stoopid. That stuff was nasty and was probably the biggest cause of this guy getting out of the hobby. If he had replaced his decade-old sandbed he wouldnt have had so many issues.

 

Hindsight is, well, what it is. Get ready to do some water changes. Keep that skimmer going and empty the cup as needed. The rock is probably ok. The ich problem can be dealt with, just get some Kick-Ich from the lfs. Make sure to have plenty of water handy. This could be nothing and clear up but the ich will have to be taken care of. Let me know more about this and what fish you have and any snails, crabs or shrimp in the tank. We'll take it from there unless someone else has a better suggestion.

 

OK will do thank you. I can relax and get some sleep now as Im simply deleriously tired. I shouldve just went straight into a bin t begin that curing process but I didnt have any salt on hand to make up some water. I figure Ill just siphon out some water from my system and use that to cook. Then just make up fresh water

 

K well Im gonna take all the new rock out and put it in a garbage can to do this "cook" business. Im going to research the cook method now but if anyone has some basic guidelines to share im all ears. For now im assuming all that must be done is to submerge the rock, run a skimmer on it with some circulation and change 50% of the water every other day? What about lighting?

And thanks so much for the advice. Ive invested a hell of alot of time and money into this reefkeeping endeavor and if it crashed Id probably drop out of the hobby in complete disgust, extremely annoyed at all the money ive wasted, not to mention the life that was lost.

 

I can totally understand how you feel but I wouldn't go off to deep end about it as it's a part of the hobby that I've had happen to me and most of the hobbyists have had happen. The best you can do is to check the water parameters closely, that is key and see if it changed after you added the rock and if it hasn't changed then just do a regular 30% water change and wait a while before doing anything else unless you want to put in some Kick-ich in to clean up that. After 2 weeks if the water is still not looking good then do another water change. You could take water samples to your LFS and see what they might recommend. The Kick-ich has no copper in which is usually what's found in formula's to cure ich. Copper will kill any corals you have so I've heard.

 

Do not bake you rock. The air in the rock will expand and some will not be able to escape. This will cause the rock to explode...literally. I suggest using bleach.