live rock question

[melanie]

I'm new to saltwater aquariums and have received an already established and cycled tank with a couple of clown fish a chocolate chip starfish and a few snails that the starfish is slowly eating. I want to add more live rock to the tank. It is a 10 gallon tank. How should I go about adding it? Do I need do anything special to the live rock so it will not upset the levels and such in the tank. I want to make the tank beautiful but I don't want to kill the local residents in the process. I was also contemplating adding some dead corals would it be okay or not. Thanks for your input and suggestions.

[salman]

Are you sure its a 10 gallon?

[melanie]

It is 40 liters, so I think it is about 10.5 gallons.

[unleashed]

how much live rock do you already have? That should give us a start. The tank dimensions and a bit more info might help as well.

[melanie]

I'm guessing it is about 5 pounds. The tank is 45 centimeters long x 30 wide x 30 high. The substrate is about 2 inches deep and looks like crushed coral. There are currently 2 false percula clownfish and a chocolate chip starfish and 3 snails (the starfish is in the process of eating the 4th snail.) I took in this aquarium from a coworker who moved and I didn't get much info with it.

[Fishguy2727]

If you get pre-cured live rock theoretically it could go straight in. The safer and cheaper route is to buy uncured live rock, and cure it yourself in either a small trash can, extra tank, or rubbermaid tub. This way you will know it is cured, and then it can go into the tank. When I did the math I came up with 11.2 gallons. I would shoot for 15-20 pounds total.

[TowBoater]

In my 30 gallon, I have 40 pounds. In my 29 I have 40 and in my 10 gallons I have 15 pounds. I use the uncured straight from the ocean in all but one of my tanks. I do that to get all the critters but it takes a long time to get it to cycle with it due to all the dead animals decaying. I do have cured in one of mine that I took a bucket of saltwater with me to the petshop to put it in and it didn't take very long at all to get it established well. If it is already cycled, cured is the best choice but I like the critters with mine.

[kkyyllee]

i would replace the cc with sand, you want about 1.5lb/g liverock, if you buy cured liverock leave it in a buvket of saltwater for a few days to make sure its cured then just adsd it to the tank

[2manyfish]

Definitely cure the rock first...if you don't then you may see a spike in ammonia/nitrite/nitrates. Even after you cure the rock you will need to watch your water levels for a week or so and do water changes as necessary. Did you get any test kits with the tank?
Chocolate chip stars are predatory (as you are finding out), they will eat live corals too. Dead corals will be fine for your tank though. :ezpi_wink1: One thing you can do to help your snails and starfish is to feed the star! You can buy regular clams or mussels at the seafood section in your grocery store (raw only). Freeze them and just pop one open once a week- thaw it out- and give it to your star! You can also give them hunks of raw shrimp or fish too.
I had one once and it was really amazing that a creature with no brain could manage to go to the top of the tank and beg for food!
I sold him when I decided to go back to a reef tank but now that I have the fish only I'm looking for another one! :c5:

[melanie]

Thanks for the suggestions on what to feed the starfish, that was going to be my next question. Now I'll just have to keep my boyfriend from eating the starfish's food. The LFS sells their live rock already cured and you choose the piece out of the fish aquariums, it is expensive though, a small (less than 1/2 pound) but beautiful piece of live rock is about 2,000 yen or about $17usd.
So if I get a piece that is supposedly aquarium ready and my water levels get all funky I know I should do water changes but is there anything else I could do to help the situation (like maybe not feeding the fish) until it improves?
I have test kits for ph, ammonia and nitrites.

[kkyyllee]

wow thats the biggest rip off on liverock... if things get funky take out the new peice and put it in a bucket of salt water, and od a 20% water change

[melanie]

This is Japan, most prices seem like ripoffs. The taxes are especially high as well. My coworker's tax for just living in Japan last year was 2,220 dollars, not counting pension tax and health insurence which is another 275 dollars a month. I think the tax on owning a car is also about $800 a year. The fish are cheap though, it's everything else they need that is expensive.