Will all the hitch hikers be dead?

[waveink]

I started my nano in a 12gal Fluval Edge 8 days ago by putting uncured live rock in the tank. When I first put the rock in there were fan worms, some long thin-legged starfish and a lot of long worms. I cleaned off the fat worms I could see, but within a day the bottom of the tank was littered with about half dozen dead worm bodies that I hadn't even seen before. I cleaned out the obvious corpses, and then the water went totally brown and smelly - the cycle was well under way. Today (day 8) the water is almost clear - still a couple of days before it's all clean again I guess. The thing is, I can't see any life or movement left on the live rock at all. The star fish are gone, and the fan worms are also apparently gone. My Ammonia is starting to go down, so I have a ways to go before the nitrites etc kick in and probably another three weeks or so before I can add anything.

 

My question is, clearly I am building my bio-cycle life mass, but will all of the 'non-micro' life on the rock, like fan worms, be dead and gone by the time I'm finished and ready to start adding inverts?

 

Thanks for any help or insight you can offer

 

pete

[patback]

There will probably be a lot that show up later. I wouldn't worry about it.

[JDK]

Dry rock is your friend

[mmcguffi]

I suppose there is a chance if you had a truly horrific cycle, but chances are you still got some of them left--asterinas, mirco brittles, fan worms, hair worms; guys of that sort

 

I would just give it time and theyll most likely turn up; they tend to be the very hardy animals anyhow