Mykesocalreef
Active Member
How long would you estimate the bacteria in live rock to colonize into newly added dry rock? Or in to those marine pure blocks?
How long for bacteria to colonize live rock?
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omykiss001
Active Member
does the tank have fish or inverts already? Do you plan to add organic material to feed the growing bacteria or keep the bioload unchanged. If you add a good source of ammonia at 2ppm it will probably take a week or 2 depending on the size of the existing colony. A month is probably a good bet, but the amount of bacteria will stabilize to the bioload of the tank so if no fish and no food the bacteria will die back, more fish more food the bacteria will grow to that carrying capacity. That's why folks always say don't add fish or animals to quickly and give a month between additions to allow the bacteria to catch up to the new bioload of the tank.
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Mykesocalreef
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yes the existing tank is a 40 breeder with 4 fish, crabs, snails, shrimp and some zoas and ricordea. Once the dead rock becomes live I will transfer to my new tank to avoid a cycle. I just need to know how long I need to leave the dry rock in for to get the bacteria well colonized... If that all makes sense.
reeferfoxx
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Are you calling your dry rock, dead rock? Or is it dry live rock? Or is it dry rock? There are differences
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Mykesocalreef
Active Member
as in dry, as in came from bulk reef supply.. I didn't know you could have dry live rock? How is that possible? Maybe my interpretation.. lol
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Mykesocalreef
Active Member
so dry rock, I guess. I apologize.
nervousmonkey
LPS Lover, SPS Enabler
No need to apologize! Can be confusing. You have dry rock, correct. Dry live rock is just rock that used to be live but isn't now. Typically you won't see rock like this on a shelf in a store; Dry live rock may still have some life left, or to put it in terms that fit better: It has some stuff on it that's gonna keep dying off so that kind of rock is going to create a cycle. There is also dry live rock that's really dry, but it came from some ocean somewhere (think Fiji or Pacific island), so it's not going to add chemicals to a tank for the most part..
You have the kind of rock that'll take a full cycle to complete, and then it will still take some more time as you increase bioload, like omykiss said. The best way to make sure you don't get hitchhikers is to do what you did, and what most people still do...
reeferfoxx
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Dry live rock is live rock from the ocean that was dried. The difference is, dry live rock has dead organics and has to be cured differently from dry rock. Dry live rock will leech phosphates during the curing process.
Dry rock is typically man made without any dead organics.
Dry rock is typically man made without any dead organics.
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Mykesocalreef
Active Member
I guess I'm still a little confused. I have an existing tank up and running for a year. With the inhabitants listed above. I want to add the reef saver rock from BRS to the tank so it will become "live" I guess... After it becomes live I want to put it in a new tank.. How long should I wait for it to become "seeded" with the live bacteria? Does that make sense? So how long for my dry rock to become alive when put into a fully cycled ecosystem?! Geeze this is confusing haha!
nervousmonkey
LPS Lover, SPS Enabler
Yeah, makes perfect sense. It'll take a couple of weeks I'd imagine, but the longer the better to ensure that the rock has had time to build up useful bacteria. Lots of people do what you are doing; I always have some cured rock in my sump to add, change out, give to someone that needs it, or just for extra filtration for my system. I'd probably wait two weeks, then you can try it out in a system, doesn't have to be the new tank yet, but should be able to process ammonia to nitrates within a 24 hour period. That's really the only way you can tell, just see if it can process ammonia to nothing... That'll be good for the new tank set up to do what you are doing; no cycle time for the new tank.
reeferfoxx
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2 weeks is a good start. Because it is BRS dry rock(man made), it might have silicates. So in that 2 weeks you might get a diatom bloom.
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Mykesocalreef
Active Member
Thank you for the help! I really appreciate it. I put a marine pure block in three weeks ago and some BRS reefsaver in two weeks ago. I plan on filling the new tank this week. So should I add some ammonia to start a typical cycle and check in 24 hours to see where its at. Or do you think the three weeks with the block and two with the rock would be enough to put a fish in?
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Mykesocalreef
Active Member
I haven't had any diatoms so Im guessing there weren't many silicates.
azbigjohn
Valuable Member
I would still try and dose a little ammonia and make sure it can process it. Maybe not up to what you would to start a cycle, but enough to detect, and see if it is gone in 24 hours. Never hurts to be safe, and don't want to stress out your new additions...
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Mykesocalreef
Active Member
Right on thank you for the input!
omykiss001
Active Member
that's a good plan as long as the new tank has no critters, once the ammonia is converted to nitrate you should be good to go.
