Should I Start Over? Things on My Rock...

But the remaining question is, if I do take the rock out of the tank and clean off the dead sponges/algae...won't I be killing everything else that has developed during the 2 weeks the rock's been in there? The tank's been cycling for 4 weeks, but the dead rock's been there only for 2....and I do end up taking out for a cleaning, will I throw the water paramaters off again and somehow reset the cycle?

 

Yes but Otty you went the old school method and it was far to inexpensive and low tech to work LOL.. I get maybe 2 people out of 50 that will listen and try it now days It was the only way to do it until the writers and experts found out how to make money.. Also I'd yank all the rock out and nuke it and start over myself.. But thats just me I hate a problem down the road. At this point its just a bit of water and salt and time..

I'd remove a rock and balst it with a hose to see if that will blast it off ? When in doubt pull it out has always worked for me.. By that I mean if I see crab or bug or anything I'm not sure of out t comes.

 

Amen on that! ;D

 

I did get some algae but not from the cycling process. I got careless and introduced some sps with plugs that had some hair algae. I quickly got it under control though. Cycling the tank with base rock should not give you algae, well at least Otty and Me. I would follow Tangsters advice :thumb_up:

 

If they were sitting on the floor of your LFS for any length of time. "like he said in the first post" And, that you blasted it with fresh water before you introduced it to your tank..... I find it hard to believe that you will have any unwanted hitchhikers and I believe that there was nothing living on it that would have survived.
I would pull off the the yellow spots, if they still worry you, and throw it in the garbage.

Enjoy,

Jim

 

I wouldn't worry about it and just keep going. It may even feed the bacteria and help.

 

Good point! I must have missed that part. So you basically started with base rock which is good. Dont forget to seed the rock with live rock that has good coraline growth on it.

 

That thinking can get you in a lot of trouble down the road if you don't watch. There are other things then just bacteria and hitchikers in LR.

 

I would normally agree but it's been sitting on the LFS floor dry for who knows how long and he's power washed it so I'm thinking he's fairly safe. But yes bettter be safe than sorry.