Help with New Tank

[Darryn Lyon]

Need some help here. On the verge of getting a nice 80 gallon system, lights, stand, sump, pumps, everything. The person has livestock in it now and the tank looks kinda rough. Lotta cyano and algae and maybe undesirable pests in the live rock. (Let's assume aiptasia, but I don't know.)

I don't want the livestock or the sand, I just want the live rock. Will dipping the live rock in coral RX kill all the pests in them? I will probably have to get more sand because the sand in my current tank probably won't be enough. Same with the water. Can I avoid having to go through a new-tank nitrogen cycle if I get SOME new sand and probably 40 gallons of new premium water?

 

[brandon429]

It's true you can avoid recycling if the rock you have is verified live, the sand and water won't matter they're extra beyond what's needed.

I wouldn't dip rock considering your plans

I'd remove it, set on counter and use a knife to score out offenders in a dedicated rasping run, like what grazing fish and urchins do in the wild. You can put the rock back after scraping clean and it will carry the cycling for the rest of the tank no matter what you do with sand

I rinse my whole sandbed in tap before reassembly, sandbed bacteria are incidental not critical given any amount of typical live rock

 

[Brew12]

Need some help here. On the verge of getting a nice 80 gallon system, lights, stand, sump, pumps, everything. The person has livestock in it now and the tank looks kinda rough. Lotta cyano and algae and maybe undesirable pests in the live rock. (Let's assume aiptasia, but I don't know.)

I don't want the livestock or the sand, I just want the live rock. Will dipping the live rock in coral RX kill all the pests in them? I will probably have to get more sand because the sand in my current tank probably won't be enough. Same with the water. Can I avoid having to go through a new-tank nitrogen cycle if I get SOME new sand and probably 40 gallons of new premium water?

I've never heard of dipping live rock in coral RX so I can't speak to that.

The water column holds very little bacteria so you could get away with using all new water.
I also recommend getting all new sand. People get in trouble by trying to reuse sand. If you clean it really good it can be done but in my opinion it is more trouble than it is worth.

 

[cwalton00]

+1 on the new sand

 

[Darryn Lyon]

So I can get all new sand and all new water and still avoid a cycle and diatom bloom and all that from having established liverock? I could just transfer my livestock over to the new tank straight away?

 

[cwalton00]

It might not hurt to add a bottle of dr tims one and only.

 

[brandon429]

of course im trying to get views on my new video but its at least a relevant plug to your actions upcoming


that's my 11 yr old pico reef totally disassembled, all the rocks and corals on the counter (in the cold kitchen air, not even water courtesy) and me rinsing the sand in tap water and 35% peroxide until its literally burnt clean.


I then set 11 yrs of corals and rocks back on top, skip the whole cycle, and I can't count how many times this is now. what you are contemplating doing is how I clean my tank, its not the rarity. pico reef skip cycle model yo! this tank is only a gallon, any sort of cycle would destroy it. large tankers have more detritus to hunt and remove (the locus of the cycle risk) but they also have some dilution to help w emergencies too.

the real risk of what you are doing is not cleaning thoroughly enough, taking partial cleaning action only seems safer its actually more dangerous.

 

[Brew12]

So I can get all new sand and all new water and still avoid a cycle and diatom bloom and all that from having established liverock? I could just transfer my livestock over to the new tank straight away?

You cannot avoid the diatom bloom since that will be related to new sand but it shouldn't last long.

You have existing live rock in your current system, right? Are you going to be transferring that over as well?

 

[Darryn Lyon]

Yes, I'll be using my liverock as well. Does the diatom affect coral? I currently don't have fish, just coral and inverts.

 

[Brew12]

Yes, I'll be using my liverock as well. Does the diatom affect coral? I currently don't have fish, just coral and inverts.

If you transfer all of your existing live rock over it will have the bacteria you need to prevent ammonia. Then you can clean and add the new live rock as you want. You won't have a cycle at all. And no, the diatoms won't hurt your coral.

 

[Ashish Patel]

I get the award for having the most aiptasia in my system aswell as so many other critters I thought where good, turned out to be bad. starfish, vermid snails, tube worms, aiptasia,etc. I got rid of the aiptasia with multiple rounds of aiptasia X and remove the heavy covered LR and peppermint shrimp. The benefits of having LR are there I mean there is just something that can not be measured through science on how beneficial it is. However I rather just add good clean beneficial animals to the tanks ecosystem. I've not done it so i can't say from experience but I would not dip in coral RX unless you plan to rinse the rock for few days afterwards, but I am sure someone else who's done it can chime in.