Mixing live and dead rock 50/50

YHSublime · Feb 18, 2020

Question for the more knowledgeable than myself:

I'm currently cycling about 200+ pounds of dead rock, which has been going for two weeks (14 days.) The cycle was kicked off by I'm sure the ton of waste left on about 50lbs of that rock being pulled from my nano. I have lights/skimmer/ATO/Big Gyers for water movement, but I'm not running the lights or skimmer while the rock is cooking.

This weekend I intend to mix it in with about another 200 + pounds of live rock.

The question is, I want to throw a tang in the tub with the 50/50 split live and dead rock. Should I do the current live rock in separate containers and slowly add the cooking rock in, or am I probably good with a combo right off the bat?

Dragon52 · Feb 18, 2020

#reefsquad will be able to help you with this.

Daddy-o · Feb 18, 2020

What is the ammonia on the dead rock?

YHSublime · Feb 18, 2020

Daddy-o said:
What is the ammonia on the dead rock?

honestly I’ve not tested, last time I cycles rock I let it go for a few months, then did a big water change. Sounds like that’s my next step.

Daddy-o · Feb 18, 2020

I just would not put a tang in with high ammonia

madweazl · Feb 18, 2020

I'd certainly start by seeing if there was any ammonia but if no kidding live rock was added from your other tank, it may not show any. Also worth check the phosphate levels if you didnt cook the rock (acid/bleach bath). I did a muriatic acid (10-20 minutes, I cant recall but have it in my build thread if it's something you're considering) and bleach (days) bath on our Marco rock and it still leached a fair amount of phosphates (knocked it out in one or two rounds of GFO).

YHSublime · Feb 18, 2020

Daddy-o said:
I just would not put a tang in with high ammonia

I don't intend to add any fish with ammonia present!

madweazl said:
I'd certainly start by seeing if there was any ammonia but if no kidding live rock was added from your other tank, it may not show any. Also worth check the phosphate levels if you didnt cook the rock (acid/bleach bath). I did a muriatic acid (10-20 minutes, I cant recall but have it in my build thread if it's something you're considering) and bleach (days) bath on our Marco rock and it still leached a fair amount of phosphates (knocked it out in one or two rounds of GFO).

Yeah, I didn't acid/bleach any of the rock prior to adding everything together. I took all the rock out of my sump and mixed it with the 150+lbs of dead (read: new) rock. I also added some rock that had been sitting outside from other peoples piles, and probably has mixed in a bit of phosphates, so I might consider running a reactor with GFO I guess to help. The other rock I'm planning on adding is definitely live and ready to roll, it's just the combo of the two that I'm curious about. Obviously one container makes my life much easier.

madweazl · Feb 18, 2020

YHSublime said:
Yeah, I didn't acid/bleach any of the rock prior to adding everything together. I took all the rock out of my sump and mixed it with the 150+lbs of dead (read: new) rock. I also added some rock that had been sitting outside from other peoples piles, and probably has mixed in a bit of phosphates, so I might consider running a reactor with GFO I guess to help. The other rock I'm planning on adding is definitely live and ready to roll, it's just the combo of the two that I'm curious about. Obviously one container makes my life much easier.

The "dead" rock is something like Pukani/Marco/BRS? I didnt have any issues with the BRS Reef Saver but the Marco had a lot of phosphates leach out. Without the acid/bleach bath, I think it would have taken more GFO than I was willing to buy (it pegged my Hanna ULR at 200 and I didn't have a way to measure above that).

Idoc · Feb 18, 2020

The pukani rock is going to have a lot of organics in it that will break down and cause an ammonia spike. My pukani was awful during the cure process.

Why do you want to add a tang to rock while it's curing? Curing is typically done in the dark to keep algae from growing due to the nutrient spikes. The tang is going to want algae to eat.

YHSublime · Feb 18, 2020

Idoc said:
The pukani rock is going to have a lot of organics in it that will break down and cause an ammonia spike. My pukani was awful during the cure process.

Why do you want to add a tang to rock while it's curing? Curing is typically done in the dark to keep algae from growing due to the nutrient spikes. The tang is going to want algae to eat.

Live rock added has algae

YHSublime · Feb 20, 2020

After testing, Nitrite is at about 2-2.5 and ammonia is 0.

I've thrown in a cube of frozen food last night, and will test again Saturday AM to see if I have any ammonia, or if by chance I might have nitrates instead of nitrites! Fingers crossed!