Live Rock Die off?

[JamesD]

Hi all,

A quick question for the more knowledgable than i!

Im shortly to be setting up a nano reef and am looking to buy 5kg of Live Rock plus a kilo or two of rubble for added filtration.

Due to my location (a British Island just of the coast of France - Channel Islands) im very limited to buying live rock locally. This means im likely to have to purchase it online to be shipped from the mainland UK, this would typically take a couple of days but may be well next day if the supplier is on form with the postage.

My question is this - realistically how long would the rock last (assuming it was wrapped in wet newspaper and contained within an insulating box) before a significant amount of die off occurs?

Essentially what im trying to work out is if paying the extra for fully cured rock is worth it over buying uncured rock? I realise even with fully cured im likely to see a cycle to some degree, its just a question of whether the length of that cycle would be getting into uncured rock territory??

[moneytimetycoon]

A couple days isnt bad. Just give it a good scrub when you get it to take off as much die off as you can. You can time it to arrive on water change day so you can use your waste water to rinse.

[BigRedSpecial]

you'll be fine. most of the lfs' here in North America get their rock shipped wrapped in newspaper so your rock should be the same.

[lordofthereef]

IMO there is generally significant die-off on all rock that is shipped. You will be able to monitor this if there is an ammonia spike. In any case unless it takes many days to get to you there will be enough left to get you through the cycle no problem.