Rock of the Living Dead?

[kweckstrom]

Several weeks, my friend had a bit of a catastrophe. His nano-cube developed a leak, and he needed a new tank ASAP.

 

My 37 oceanic cube had finished cycling a week before and was lightly stocked. I helped him out by putting all my stock into my 37. Of course, I already have 55lb of LR in that tank, so I put all my LR in a tupperware bin and figured i'd put that LR in a replacement tank when I got one.

 

I finally got a 16H tank the other day. But there's a slight problem.

 

The live rock was sitting in that rubbermaid bin for about 2 or 3 weeks with no light and just a powerhead for water movement. I opened up the tub (water was crystal clear), and put the LR in the tank - but after that much time in the dark, is it even "live" anymore? I can't physically see any critters, though the tank is still a bit cloudy.

 

Whatcha think? Is it live? or is it.....dead?

 

Just in case, I seeded the new tank with around 8oz of sand from my established 37. That's probably where the dead mysis came from, now that I think of it.

[Aiptasia]

Half dead. Probably not completely dead but there will be a lot of die off in the rock itself. You can still use the rock provided you are willing to go through the curing process again, which would be acceptable if you're starting over from scratch. Theres no doubt it's fouling, but you can get it to recover by going through the cure process again in it's own tank.

[kweckstrom]

Originally posted by Aiptasia

Half dead. Probably not completely dead but there will be a lot of die off in the rock itself. You can still use the rock provided you are willing to go through the curing process again, which would be acceptable if you're starting over from scratch. Theres no doubt it's fouling, but you can get it to recover by going through the cure process again in it's own tank.

 

That's the case right now, but there was NO foul odors whatsoever on the rock...

 

In fact, i'm seeing some signs of life on the rock as we speak - it's been in the tank since Sat.

[skeletor]

I think it should be ok, as long as you had water movement and some heat the rock should be fine. nothing much in the rock really needs light (bacteria, worms, pods, etc.)

 

pods and shrimp (mysis) can survive some pretty amazing conditions. about 2 months ago I did a WC and put the old water into a plastic container with an air line. I sealed the container and waited for the pods to die. anyway, to my amazement the pods are still living and I'm getting little snails show up on the plastic container.. the water is a little yellow but the pods are still alive and kicking.

 

-skeletor-

[Aiptasia]

Yep. If there was any significant die off in the rock, you'd probably see telltale signs like an explosion of copepods as the LR was curing the second go around. Sounds like it's going to recover just fine.