Quick question.

[Flyride95]

So today I got a smoking deal on a 110gallon. It came with tons of live rock and sand. The only problem is it was in fresh water. I'm hoping I'm right thinking it is all alive but will cause a cycle when I put saltwater on it? I'm moving in 2 months so I was going to put the sand and rock back into the aquarium and just add enough saltwater to submerge them well and just let a pump rotate the saltwater for the next 2 months out in my garage? Would it be safe by then?

btw when I mean live rock I mean saltwater rock and saltwater sand. I have no clue why he had freshwater on it.

[jcnkt_ellis]

You're spot on, I think. Major cycle as everything in their dies from the increase in salinity but it should all be fine if your cycling for 2 months.

[Flyride95]

Ok thank you. Just wanted to make sure lol

[Flyride95]

I guess the main thing I'm getting a little scared over is the sand. Do you think I will have a problem converting fresh to salt?

[Big_Pun]

what kind of rock is it?

[FireWater]

Different bacteria colonies. Not sure.
To be safe I would just replace the sand.

[The_wolfeman]

I agree with John. Just replace the sand the foot print should be 48x24 so you'll need about 40lbs for a 1 1/2 - 2" sand bed. You can get 40lb bags for around 40 bucks. And I would just rinse the rock off real well let it dry out completely just to be safe. But as Chris was asking it does make a difference what kind of rock you're using. Some rock typically used in freshwater usually doesn't do well in out saltwater setups.

[Sherita]

One suggestion since it was freshwater. Test for copper. Copper is used frequently in freshwater tanks to treat for ich. If it was used in that tank, it's possible that the live rock will leach it into the saltwater. Copper test kits are not expensive, but not testing for it could be very expensive.

[Flyride95]

Here s the rocks. I wasnt joking when I said it was saltwater. http://i46.tinypic.com/t0sto4.jpg http://i50.tinypic.com/f1f5ox.jpg

The sand looks like Caribean Fiji pink.

[The_wolfeman]

I would dry it all out wither way. And +1 on what sherita said. If you really don't want to buy sand lay it all out on a tarp or split open a trash bag and let it dry over about a week

[Flyride95]

He says no copper was ever used and they never got ich. So you guys would not cycle the sand and rock? Just the rocks toss the sand and buy new sand?

[FireWater]

Better safe than sorry. New sand is cheap compared to other probs later.

[Flyride95]

Yea I agree. Thank you guys.

one last stupid question lol. If I buy a few bags of live sand does it have to cycle or can you go ahaid and brin your fish over? The reason I'm asking is in moving in 2 months so I'm trying to plan this out.

[Sherita]

It's going to have to cycle. Freshwater bacteria in the rocks does not equal saltwater bacteria. When changed over, you will have a massive die off of the freshwater bacteria and microbes within the rock, which will cause a full cycle in the tank. There is simply no avoiding it since this rock was used in freshwater. Expect a six to eight week cycle, just like any other new tank started with uncured live rock (which this basically is, since it came from a freshwater tank).

[Flyride95]

Yea in getting started on the rock right now since I'm not going to be using the tank for 2 months. But what about the new sand? Does new bagged live sand cycle?

[jcnkt_ellis]

Yes it cycles as well. The bacteria in the live sand only lives for so long before it starts to die off in an air tight bag and God knows how long the sand sat on the shelf or in a warehouse before you bought it.

[Flyride95]

Ok that is what I thought.

[Scutterborn]

The freshwater bacterias are Nitrosonomas marina and Nitrospira moscoviensis. They are your converting bacterias taking ammonia (NH3) to nitrate (NO2) then to (NO3).

In saltwater, you have completely different strains. Technically, there are (2) types of bacteria that need to be established in a saltwater aquarium: Nitrosomas and Nitrobacter.


- Ben -

[Flyride95]

Hey thank you everyone for your quick responses. Very appreciated. I'm going to start a picture thread so I can update it and you guys can see it after the move is over.

[Flyride95]

Ok guys I dont know what to think here. I have had the rock outside with water running now for 12 days. I did throw in a shrimp to get it kick started (not sure if this helps or not). Within the 12 day time all that has happened is nitrites went up to .50ppm but that is it. These rocks just smelled like saltwater when I was putting them in the aquarium and the sand did too. In the sand there were even coral frag disks. What I think is going on here is the tank was saltwater and he basically just drained what he could out of there and filled it back up with fresh as crazy as that sounds. Anyway I pulled another test today and it is perfect. Do you guys think this will still cycle? Reguardless im still going to keep it cycling for another month and a half.

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o8/Flyride95/IMG_03071.jpg

[Flyride95]

Would it of not started to cycle yet?

[sdunn90fowlr]

It should have started in 12 days, I would think. You could always add some sort of bacteria culture to it. Brightwell Aquatics Microbactor is the one I use. Not the cheapest but I do get very good results. I use it as regular routine, but it is for kickstarting new tanks as well.

[Flyride95]

Awesome Ty.