Quote Originally Posted by blane1983 View Post
Ok I am getting a better understanding now. My sand is from lfs (texas tropicals), the rocks were once in an established tank but were out of water for 2 weeks (my fault). Before I put the rocks in my tank I put them in a tub with a ph and ran that for a week with daily water changes. Then I put them in my tank. I do water changes on the tank every two days. I also put a small rock in the from an established tank ( i crushed it up and sprinkled it on my rocks) What are your opinions on all of this?
IMO at 2 weeks, those are dead rocks. There would still be decaying matter on it, but very little if anything would have survived. Bacteria int he core may have (depends if it was in the blazing sun, etc). But it's safer to consider it dead.

Your water changes every 2 days are a little much IMO (unless its a small amount). I would stick to 10% change once a week for now untill you see the ammonia start to spike high. Then, do a 30% water change and continue monitoring. If it's still high, do another 30% 2 days later. Since you don't have fish, etc in there I would try to keep some of the ammonia in there so your bacteria can really start to flourish.

Crushing the LR and putting on your base rock is a good idea for seeding as the benefitial bacteria will begin colonizing the base rock.