New Dry Rock

[hardzip]

Hi all, this is my first post. I have a 75 gal. mixed reef tank with a 30 gal. sump. the tank has been running for 10 years now, unfortunately with my work I have let the tank go for awhile with bad maintenance for about a year. I would like to change out all the rock which is about 80 lbs. with new dry base rock, the reason being is the old rock i believe is phosphate logged and loaded with bubble algae. what kind of problem am I looking at or how should I go about changing all the rock. I was going to use Carib sea dry base rock and start over. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks....Steve

 

[Brew12]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

I'd like to say this will be easy, but you have a few challenges. Your biofilter is your rock. If you remove all of your rock you remove all of your biofilter so your system will stop processing ammonia. Typically, you can avoid this by removing a small amount of the old rock, transfer some to the sump, and start adding the new rock. You can repeat this process every few weeks until all the old rock is out of the display, then gradually remove it from the sump. This presents you with 2 issues. First, you would likely get bubble algae on the new rock. Second, your new rock would start getting loaded with phosphates. Phosphate reaches an equilibrium in our tanks between the water and substrate. If you have PO4 in your water and none in your rocks, your rock will absorb it out of the water. If you run GFO to pull PO4 out of the water, that PO4 will leach out of the rock and into the water.

So, these are the challenges I feel you have. You could pre-cycle all of your new rock in a tub for a month or two so it can support processing the ammonia when you do the change out. Another option would be to use a product like Vibrant, along with running GFO, to get rid of the bubble algae and control PO4 while you transition the rock over slowly.

You have options, but none will be fast. At least not any that I can think of.

 

[laverda]

Personally I think that is going to cause a whole list of new problems. Especially for a reef tank. If you change to dry rock you going to go through a cycle like a new tank. Dry rock takes much longer to become established and many people have had issues setting up a tank that way.
I you do decide to switch out your rock I would cure it long term first.

Bubble algae can be delt with. There are several methods. I will discuss what I have done in the past. I would add an ATS with a blue and red LED grow light. You can incorporate an ATS in your overflow, the weirs of your sump or on the surface of your sump for next to nothing. Light it 24/7 to begin with. The ATS will out compete with algaes in the display tank causing them to die out. You can help by syphoning the bubbles out using larger rigid air tubing atached to flexable hose to do so. I have sharpened the end of the tibe in the past to make it easier. The goal being to suck out the bubbles intact if possible. After doing this I add a small amount of hydrogen peroxide to the tank to kill any spores in the water column. You can also remove any easy to get to rocks and scrub the bubble algae off. After doing so rinse the rock with hydrogen peroxide to kill the remaining algae and spores before puting the rock back in the tank.

 

[Reeferdood]

10 years!?
If it were me and I had to go through all the trouble of a change out of the rockwork, I would completely start over and perhaps replace the aquarium as well. The silicone from older tanks can fail, I usually begin to worry at the 10 year mark...
Just a thought.

 

[Porpoise Hork]

10 years!?
If it were me and I had to go through all the trouble of a change out of the rockwork, I would completely start over and perhaps replace the aquarium as well. The silicone from older tanks can fail, I usually begin to worry at the 10 year mark...
Just a thought.

As long as the tank has been level for the duration of its operating life and you can still make an indention with your thumb nail in the silicone then it's likely just fine. It's when the silicone hardens up, or the tank shifts putting it off level is where you usually run into problems. Those usually being a leaking seam or cracked panel. Neither of which are fun to come home to...

 

[hardzip]

Thank you for all the suggestions, I think I will be trying the Vibrant chemical to clear up the bubble( plus manually removing some) while running more GFO , I also have a 30 gal bio cube that's been running for a year as a quarantine tank that i will be putting some new rock in to swap out with the main tank a little at a time. The silicone on the main tank seems fine when I checked it. Just trying to make the gradual change as less stress full as possible on my fish also.

Once again Thanks