Issue with Liverock - Oldtown Aquarium

[DAS212]

Hello CR, I could use some help!

I recently got back into the hobby after a taking a break for several years. When I had a tank back in 2013 I purchased all of my live rock from Beyond the Reef in Schaumburg. This stuff was amazing and I had a healthy reef tank within a month.

A few months ago, I started up again and purchased a bunch of live rock from Oldtown Aquarium in Chicago at $9.99 a pound. I spoke with someone at the store and they assured me the rock I was buying was live, hence the hefty price. Now, all of my rock is covered in thick brown algae. When I agitate the water column by the rock all of this algae sloughs off and clouds the entire tank up.

Did I get scammed? Could this stuff actually have been "dead rock" thrown into a display and sold as live? I am pretty bummed and unsure what to do. Does anyone have any advice on how to proceed?

Thanks!

Dave

 

[Sawdonkey]

“Live” simply means covered in bacteria. Dead rock turns into live rock. If it was sitting in Old Town’s tanks for a while (months) it’s live rock. It doesn’t necessarily mean it came from the ocean. So, no, I don’t think you got scammed. When you put live rock in a new tank it often has to reestablish the bacteria. There’s a good chance your rock was dead, then live, now dead, soon to be live.

I’m not sure how much you bought, but an economical way to do it is to by about 1/3 live rock then buy the rest in dry rock.

 

[DAS212]

Thanks for the reply. I just remeber the rock from Beyond the Reef being totally different. It seemed to be bursting with life whereas this is an algae covered mess.

 

[tinman]

Depending on how long its been cycling in their tanks it may still be leaching ton of phosphates which would cause that algae mess.

If they charged you $9.99 per pound its your prerogative to ask questions about it

Now that you have it in your tank and aquascaped and all research venegar or vodka dosing to take care of that leaching problem quicker ( to get rid of phosphates)




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[carpetreef75]

Hello CR, I could use some help!

I recently got back into the hobby after a taking a break for several years. When I had a tank back in 2013 I purchased all of my live rock from Beyond the Reef in Schaumburg. This stuff was amazing and I had a healthy reef tank within a month.

A few months ago, I started up again and purchased a bunch of live rock from Oldtown Aquarium in Chicago at $9.99 a pound. I spoke with someone at the store and they assured me the rock I was buying was live, hence the hefty price. Now, all of my rock is covered in thick brown algae. When I agitate the water column by the rock all of this algae sloughs off and clouds the entire tank up.

Did I get scammed? Could this stuff actually have been "dead rock" thrown into a display and sold as live? I am pretty bummed and unsure what to do. Does anyone have any advice on how to proceed?

Thanks!

Dave

If it was "dead rock " as you mention wouldn't there tank been full of brown algae and there tank cloudy ? Get yourself some Turbo snails and tell them get to work
Bryan

 

[DAS212]

If it was "dead rock " as you mention wouldn't there tank been full of brown algae and there tank cloudy ? Get yourself some Turbo snails and tell them get to work
Bryan

The tank at the store with rock in it is on bottom of all the display tanks and is lit by a few small led strips used for moonlight lighting. You have to use the flashlight on your phone to select pieces of rock.


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[carpetreef75]

The tank at the store with rock in it is on bottom of all the display tanks and is lit by a few small led strips used for moonlight lighting. You have to use the flashlight on your phone to select pieces of rock.


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flashlight noted ...
Bryan

 

[Gav]

They used to sell both Bali live rock and one of the purple synthetic rocks there so it depends.

The algae could be growing like crazy for other reasons though. Maybe the lights are on too long or maybe it's the water you started with?


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[Sawdonkey]

They used to sell both Bali live rock and one of the purple synthetic rocks there so it depends.

The algae could be growing like crazy for other reasons though. Maybe the lights are on too long or maybe it's the water you started with?


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Live rock could mean straight from the ocean or simply cured dry rock. At $10 per lb, it’s probably the from the ocean variety. In that case, it probably is/was crawling with life, but also crawling with death, hence the nutrients which contributes to algae growth.

 

[DAS212]

I killed the lights for three days and turned up the mp10. All the algae on the rocks is gone now. No hitchhikers though so I am wondering how "live" it really was.

 

[babbyk]

When you say "live" in the context of live rock, you are not talking about "hitch-hikers", the beneficial life (bacteria) that lives on/in the rock is not visible. If it was in a system with other rock, don't worry it's live. It could take months for you to see any hitch-hikers.