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So I broke down and bought some additionally live rock from an internet store. I got it on Tuesday. I purchased 29 pounds of "cured" Marshall Island LR.

I knew there would be some die-off even though it was shipped overnight priority so I planned to "cure" it in my ten-gallon that I setup the weekend prior. Anyways to make a long story shorter, I ended up going out and purchasing a 20L on Tuesday to put it all in because it wasn't going to fit in the 10 gallon... I don't know why I had the crazy idea that it would.

So I put an inch of CaribSea Aragonite in the bottom of the 20L mixed up some water, "threw" the LR in, and started a filter. Out of curiousity, I have been observing the ammonia level and they are quite high. Currently the ammonia level is about 6-8 ppm. I am thinking that I should do a partial water change. What would you all suggest? Should I just let it go? Thanks!

-Josh

Additionally, I was thinking about putting some snails and hermits in the tank to "clean up" a little bit. But I don't know if the little guys could survive in that ammonia level, would you suggest that as well?

-Josh

I would do partial water changes to bring the ammonia down to 1-2ppm. Might take you a while. You might want to increase circulation if you can, and change out your filter cartridge daily if there's any gunk. It doesn't sound like it was cured to me. If there was no heat pack included, it might have gotten too cold. Usually an overnight ship wouldn't cause THAT much die off.

I wouldn't put any hermits or anything in there.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Yea, I kind of have mixed opinions about this company. They really just didn't clean the rock before they shipped so there was a lot of "cleaning" of the rock before it got in the tank. I think I might scrub it a little bit again this weekend if I find time. Thanks Matt! You're always a huge help!

-Josh

Thats generally what you get when you buy "cured" live rock online.

Working at a fish store, I can't count how many customers I've had to deal with who had a whole system crash because they purchased "cured" live rock online.

"But they said it was cured!"

I was just fotunate that I was "wise" enough to know this might happen so I didn't put it in my main tank I guess the experience isn't all that bad because I got it cheap and it'll cure in time...I'll just have to deal with a stinky bedroom for awhile. The ladies aren't too attracted the to smell of curing LR I"m sure though

LR around here sells for 3 times the price I got this for, so all is not lost. I saved a ton of money and I have lots of rock now

-Josh

Generally when an online company says the rock is cured it means they tossed it in their gigantic holding tanks for a couple weeks and aren't getting ammonia or nitrite readings currently. It doesn't mean they cleaned it off any before tossing it in or that the specific rock you got is done having die off even though their huge tanks aren't getting any readings. Plus my rock got frozen on it's way here and practically everything died. Except the spaghetti worms for some reason. I would do water changes because the lower you keep the ammonia the more critters will survive. Otherwise any critters will die and pretty much all you'll have left is the bacteria.

When an online company sells live rock as cured, thats because at the time it normally is....It is "cured" in one of two ways.

1)Either it has been sitting in their holding facility for quite some time to "cure" the rock OR

2)It is technically "cured" straight from the ocean and transhipped to you.

IMO I want rock shipped to me with as much life on it as possible....I dont want anyone to clean the rock before I get it because I want to be the one to do that. Thats the whole point in buying live rock....to get as much life as possible. Maybe its just me, but Id rather be the one picking and choosing what macros, etc stay on my new rock. Normally I only clean of the stuff that is already dead and let everything else have a fighting chance.

If your ammonia is still that high I would probably be doing 50% water changes to get the ammonia down as low as possible....I may even consider a 100% (or close to it) water change. The lower you keep ammonia and nitrite, the more benefit you will have from the live rock, and the more diverse the critters will be.

I totally agree DRO, I would like to have them not clean off "everything" but it would have been nice for them to clean off obvious "garbage". There was actually some pretty nasty algae on one of the pieces

I actually did a 60% water change yesterday and the ammonia level is still extremely high So I really don't know what to do but do another water change. Thanks for all the comments everyone

-Josh

Most live rock collecting places will pull the rock out of the water and set the rock under huge saltwater spray tables....this is just to keep the rock moist and to also drive out a lot of the unwanted pests that are in the live rock. After that they box it up and ship it to distributors...MOST distributors dont even open the boxes to look at the rock before they ship it to online venders, LFS's, etc...the same goes for a lot of the online venders, they will not open the boxes before shipping it out to customers since they place their live rock orders based on the orders that their customers placed with them.

HTH

I think I found the root of my ammonia problem!!!

I emptied all the water from the tank and "cleaned" the LR again. In one of the very hiden crevasses I found a large mass of "God knows what". Unfortunately, my knowledge of creatures is very limited. If I had to take a wild guess I would say it was a sea cucumber that died in there but I really haven't a clue. I've never seen a S.C. in person actually. But I removed that mass and a lot of obviously dead things so we'll see what happens now...Hopefully my ammonia will get a lot better.

I also found some brush algae This "deal" is becoming worse

-Josh