Adding more dry rock

[siniang]

Aloha,

The originally dry rocks in my tank (now a little over 4 months old, 3 months fish-in) started getting color. Mostly algae, brown, green....I do see hints of purple (but since they're nowhere near as bright as what I see in pictures or the LFS, I'm not convinced it's corraline). I'm still dealing with early tank uglies, mostly diatoms at the moment. Fish are good and no other concerns at the moment.

I still have some dry rocks laying around and was wondering what would happen if I put them in - any concerns? Any parameters I would need to monitor? What would be the worst that could happen?

Also, I do have to treat one of them, just in case, as it's been in a tank previously and I don't want to accidentally introduce anything harmful.

Thanks for any advice!

 

[David cornelius]

you could add them to your tank uncured but the outcome would be the same as when you added dry rock to your new system the first time, it would introduce a mini cycle into your tank and you would need to monitor you ammonia, and ph, and phosphate levels, exactly how big is your tank, and how much rock are you wanting to add?

 

[PDR]

Adding dry rock should not cause a mini cycle. Depending on the rock it may increase phosphate, and just make sure however you plan to treat the one piece of rock is safe to add back to a reef.

 

[Billdogg]

I wouldn't hesitate to add more rocks. In fact, now is a great time to do it. I assume it is from the same batch as your original? All the more reason to use it up as you see fit. You won't be adding anything new, just more of the same.

FWIW - I have a large pile of rocks in the back corner of my yard - when I need something different I just go out, find the right piece, rinse it in the slop sing and toss it in.

 

[siniang]

I have a fish-only slowly turning FOWLR tank, so I don't really have to worry about the phosphates, right? Other than that they could another algae bloom of course. As long as it doesn't cause a mini-cycle.... while my tank is cycled, I'm still monitoring ammonia closely, just because it's still so new and I have messy meat-eater fish (still doing weekly to 1.5-weekly water changes - just in case)

I was gonna treat the rock with a hint of bleach in water, then rinse it with prime water thoroughly and let it dry in the sun for a couple days.

40 gallons and two what I would consider larger pieces (one is store-bought lava rock, so I'm probably not gonna treat it at all, only rinse)