live rock advice

[MarkLW]

Ok so i'm new at this... just bought new live rock that came from an established tank.. it is already curred and is currently in a 75 hex with mag 350 and some power jets... do we need to put a protein skimmer on the tank?? we currently have a freshwater light above the tank with white bulbs... do we need atinic lights? we still do not have our 120 plumbing for our new tank figured out so the 190 lbs of live rock and 160lbs of live sand may sit in the 75 gallon for a week, max 2... what is to long for this situation? the light reaches some of the rock on top... its pretty much stacked full to the top... any advice??? :oops:

[JimD]

Wow, I cant believe this hasent been addressed yet! Sorry bout that.
The rock should be ok as long as you have sufficiant flow, you dont need actinic for the rock and a skimmer certainly wouldnt hurt. As for the sand however, anytime you disturb a mature sandbed, like moving it to anothere tank, youre going to have substantial die-off which will create a hefty ammonia spike , thats where your problem lies, when it comes time to transfer the sand to the new tank, it will have to cycle just like live rock. Be very carefull here, monitor your ammonia closely and dont even think about putting any animals in there till the Am Nitrate and Nitrite are all at zero. Trasnfering a sand bed is very difficult especially if its mature with tons of life. HTH and welcome to MAAST!