The Puffer Forum

I do not know anything about liverock but would like to get some for my GSP's. What do i need to know?

nobody knows anything about liverock

Live rock is basically rock that has bacteria, microorganisims and other such creepy crawlies living on it. Adding it to an existing tank is a little tricky, as no matter how careful you are, some of the stuff will start to die in transport.

So generally you need to buy it, take it home and keep it in a bucket, tank or tub with a power head for a few weeks and let it "cure", basically meaning let everything that died rot and be dismantled by the bacteria.

Otherwise if you toss it in your tank, everything that died will pollute your tank.

Its a great thing to have though, that's for sure.

I just read that after curing liverock you should put it in very high SG for a minute to get all the unwanted shrimp and stuff out of it, could you skip that step and let the puffers take care of that?

Depends on what kind of puffers you have. If your puffers are big, any mantis shrimp that crawls out of the rock will be a snack. If your puffers are small, it might be the other way around. Don't underestimate the power of a mantis shrimp's striking spears.

There will be two large GSP'S in there.

Gosh, I'm not too sure who'd come out unscathed in that battle.

I won't risk it then, i don't want my puffers to get hurt.

justin wrote:nobody knows anything about liverock

There's a lot of posts on here already if you do a search for live rock.

I read that wile curing live rock you should do 100% water changes 2 a week. for those of you who have cured live rock is that how much you did.

Yes, I have bought totally uncured rock. It took about a month to cure, to where there was no ammonia coming off the rock. If you buy rock from a place that says it's cured, it may only take a week to insure all die-off is gone.

did you do 100% water changes twice a week

Pufferpunk wrote:Gosh, I'm not too sure who'd come out unscathed in that battle.

Mantis shrimp for sure. I watched a video this week of a peacock mantis shrimp killing a blue ringed octopus. And that was with a "smashing" mantis, rather than a spearing one.

I certainly wouldnt keep a puffer with my spearing mantis.

I'm definitly not going to risk it then