live rocks in freshwater

[sunnymittu]

i got 200 lbs of live rock for my 60 gallon aquarium but i have cured them in saltwater for 3 months but now i have put my all live rocks in freshwater
i have cut down the salt percentage in aquarium
i was hoping that if these rocks will stay alive in my freshwater and grow algae of some kind
wat im i gonna lose if i have not used live rocks in their natural habbitat
i can see some small things growing but i am not sure that it is some kind of creature or algae
1mm to 3mm long brown colour tentacles are growing from the rocks
i put 1 kg of home salt to my aquarium every month when i change 80% of water
i have also submerged 5 kg of garden mud for plants to grow as i know it exhales to much oxygen
i was wondering does live rock use oxygen or carbon dioxide more to grow

CHEERS!!!!!!

[Cichlid-Man]

If you keep them in freshwater, naturally everything that grows on them for saltwater will die.

[TabMorte]

Just FYI. Kitchen salt is not the same as sea salt. Kitchen salt isn't good for anything in your tank.

If you're going to put salt in a fresh water aquarium you should use Aquarium or Kosher salt. That will not sustain the life on your rock though, that needs sea salt.

[nrstype]

Putting Salt Water "Live Rock", that has been in a salt water circulating system, then putting them into a fresh water environment will kill off anything that was living on them in the salt water.

Be looking for a super ammonia spike when that happens.

I had a friend who did that same thing, and they paid the price for that error, lost all their livestock with the super ammonia jump. It took several weeks, to 3 months, to get that tank back into equilibrium after that. They didn't have a clue as to why, until we told them the reason.

And like the others stated, "Home salt" or kitchen salt is a NO NO in the tank. Use only REEF, Sea, or Ocean pre~made SALT for Salt water aquariums, and for Fresh water, use ONLY Aquarium FW or Kosher salt like tabMorte stated.

Live rock isn't really "Alive", it has bacterial colonies that grow on its surfaces, that help filter the water. WHAT DOES IT NEED? Good Water Circulation, and light, depending on what you want it to grow. Algae needs light, bacteria need circulation.

Remember, SALT does NOT evaporate out. It must be manually TAKEN OUT with water changes, and if you change out only 80% of the water, and replace 100% of the FW Salt for the tank's capacity, then you will, in time, end up with a tank full of salt. Only replace with the exact prescribed amount of salt for the water you plan on putting back in the tank.

[jmack]

u cant do that it will never work

[nrstype]

Basically sunnymittu, you need to do some more research into what you want to achieve.

If you want to use the live rock from a salt environment, because you like the look of the rock, you'll need to clean it up, let it soak in a barrel or tub of freshwater, changing out the water every few days, to let everything die off (several weeks) and then let it dry out in the sun BEFORE you put it in a FW system, would be the best way. Just so you know, any coraline algae will die off with it (purple colored hard algae).

Best bet.. get some other rock to use. LR doesn't work the same in a FW environment.

[jobeak]

You can use ocean rock for this purpose. It is similar to live rock in shape but is usually bleached and cleaned to remove any live inhabitants. I use it in my cichlid tanks and it looks great. Its usually an awful lot cheaper than live rock as well.

[Stykman]

There is no such thing as "Live Rock" for Freshwater Aquariums.

If you are trying to achieve the "look" of Rocky, or just using them for aquascape, go to your backyard, or a near by Woods or Stream. I live in a pretty Rock Filled area. I picked out some cool looking rocks from the backyard, put them in a 5 gallon bucket of water for a week. Made sure they didn't "Break Down" to powder, and tested the pH of that water every day to make sure they didn't alter water conditions.

Once I was convinced they didn't affect the quality of the water or break down under water, They went right in the tank. All my fish LOVE the cover they provide...and I LOVE the way they look.