Adding old live rock

[Gregory]

Just a couple of questions. I am upgrading my tank from a 100g reef to a 200g reef. When I bought the 200g tank it came with 150 lb of live rock that appears dead. It was stored for a year in tubs with substrate and a couple inches of sw. It appears to have remained damp. In my 100g tank I now have 150 lb of good coralline covered live rock. I am curing the new live rock now in plastic trash cans. My question is if I do not increase my bio load and add all 300 lbs to the new 200 g tank would the good live rock be able to still sustain the current bio load in the larger tank. My second question is how long do you think it will take to culture the new live rock I'm adding. I don't want to increase the bioload until I know that it will not stress the tank.

 

[KatyEnochs]

yes, to answer your first question, if you do not increase your bioload, then the rock will be able to support the same amount of livestock regardless of the tanks water volume. As for the culturing of the new live rock, id say probably a month, but i am mostly just throwing that number out there because that's how long it has taken for me to cure basically uncycled rock, and I am assuming there is still a lot of die off on the rock. Though regardless of how long it takes to cycle, I would only add maybe 10-15 lbs at a time ONCE it is fully cycled. I would add the 10-15 lbs, wait 3 days, if there is no spike, then add 10-15 more, etc. You can begin increasing your bioload gradually in this time as well, but just go slow with no more than one fish per week, because you do not want too many new variables going on in your tank at one time.