"Salvaging" life off of LR

[oakasfan]

Hey,

 

I am in the process of making a massive downsizing from a 150g FOWLR to a BC29 reef. I have moved over the LR that I wanted for my scape and have probably 100+ lbs of rock left in the tank. Once I moved the LR over to the BC29 I began to see all sorts of life (pods, stars, etc) on the LR that I never saw before - I think mainly because of the size of the tank. I will be drying out the rest of the LR in the FOWLR for storage very soon.

 

Well, all that life would be nice to have in the BC29 and I was wondering if there is any way to "harvest" any of it off of the rock to transfer it over before drying? I would love all that stuff in the new tank... plus it would be nice not to have to kill all of it in drying.

 

Life is life... guess I would like to save as much as possible.

 

Thanks in advance!

[mrbigshot]

mabey hyper saliity dip? most critters will jet off the rock into water and you can chose what to throw in your cube, if not salinity mabey soda water.

[Markushka]

or the revserse, a hyposalinity dip (could even use freshwater) If you do this tho, have another bucket with regular salt water and a seive ready, and do a transfer asap to prevent die-off. In either case, most inverts such as pods won't tolerate abnormal salinity for long.

 

haven't tried hyper-salinity, but hypo-salinity has been very effective for me.

[oakasfan]

I have a ton of the rock... I could try BOTH and see what happens. Nothing like a little science project to see what happens.

 

What specific gravity are we talking about with a hypersalinity dip?

 

I could use RO/DI for a hyposalinity dip... then pour off the excess water from the collecting bucket and pour the remainder (hopefully with lots of critters) back to the BC29.

 

Any idea on how long in the hyper/hypo salinity dip?

[Dani3d]

anything you will try surely beat drying off..that will surely kill everything.

 

your sand also contain lots of live, bacterias and little bristle worms that are beneficial cleaning crew.

 

I have a ton of the rock... I could try BOTH and see what happens. Nothing like a little science project to see what happens.

 

What specific gravity are we talking about with a hypersalinity dip?

 

I could use RO/DI for a hyposalinity dip... then pour off the excess water from the collecting bucket and pour the remainder (hopefully with lots of critters) back to the BC29.

 

Any idea on how long in the hyper/hypo salinity dip?

[FindingBlemo]

All this sounds good, you could even dip the live rock in your BC, shake it around a little, and then continue with the hypo-salinity dip. Make sure you follow Dani3d suggestions, there's nothing worse than a dead sandbed to start off with.

[Markushka]

what I did was submerge the rock and shake it for a bit. then i'd strain the water and place the contents in a bucket of tank water.

 

From my experience with freshwater rock dips, you have 30 seconds to 1.5 min (the shorteer, the better) for 80-90% survival of pods and such. could also try something round 1.015 or so, and i'd guess an effective hyper-salinity would be something in the 1.030-1.040 SG range.

 

It's not that important what the SG is as long as it is abnormal for the critters. I'd think survival rates & times would increase as the SG was closer to 1.025 on either side, but removal would decrease.

 

Give it a shot and let me know how my hypothesis stands up

[oakasfan]

Not much sand in the FOWLR... just a very small amount to cover the tank bottom. I also have about 3-4" of sand in a sump. Gotta be stuff in there too. It was prevoiusly recommended that I NOT add the small amount of sand to the new tank. I don't remember the specific reason...

 

Once all the rock is out I can scrape up the sand and see what i can sift out of it.

[lakshwadeep]

A small amount of sand should not be a significant problem. Most recommendations for not using old sand beds are based on the idea that it is full of detritus and other organic compounds that have accumulated and could be released after the moving process.

[oakasfan]

First attempt at harvesting not very successful.

 

Rinsed a couple chunks of LR off in a bucket of fresh RO/DI water and had about a dozen pods fall off the rock. Unfortunately I think about 10 of them were dead within 30 seconds.....

 

 

Back to the drawing board.