Old rock in new tank

Cholla76 · Sep 21, 2021

Hi all,
I’m upgrading my red sea reefer 250 to a Red Sea peninsula 500. I want to take a few pieces of rock and add to the new tank. I will also be using new rock and new sand. Will this cause any issues in the new tank? Also I want to leave the old tank running until the new one is established, will taking a few pieces of rock out cause issues in the old tank?
Thanks for the help!

Dolphins18 · Sep 21, 2021

No issues assuming there are not any pests on the rock you will be re using. I actually reccomend this approach and try to use some live rock from an existing tank when starting a new one.

Alaeriel · Sep 21, 2021

It will transfer any hitchhikers or problems the old tank had to your new one. Other than that, it shouldn't be to much of a problem (unless you have the old tank running without a sand bed or any other filtration and you take out ALL of the rock, then you may overwhelm your biofilter.)

Cholla76 · Sep 21, 2021

Dolphins18 said:
No issues assuming there are not any pests on the rock you will be re using. I actually reccomend this approach and try to use some live rock from an existing tank when starting a new one.

Great thanks!

Cholla76 · Sep 21, 2021

Alaeriel said:
It will transfer any hitchhikers or problems the old tank had to your new one. Other than that, it shouldn't be to much of a problem (unless you have the old tank running without a sand bed or any other filtration and you take out ALL of the rock, then you may overwhelm your biofilter.)

No I’m going to leave the old tank with everything running and all the sand. Just plan on using 2-3 pieces of rock. Eventually I’m going to take all the fish and move them to the new tank and break down old tank.

Alaeriel · Sep 21, 2021

Cholla76 said:
No I’m going to leave the old tank with everything running and all the sand. Just plan on using 2-3 pieces of rock. Eventually I’m going to take all the fish and move them to the new tank and break down old tank.

That should work very well! If you remove the rock from the water during transfer, keep in mind there will be some dieoff and may trigger an ammonia spike. Still more helpful than starting sterile though!

parkwaytrash · Sep 21, 2021

No, no issues at all. I just did and will continue to do this with my old 50 and my new 125

Cholla76 · Sep 21, 2021

Alaeriel said:
That should work very well! If you remove the rock from the water during transfer, keep in mind there will be some dieoff and may trigger an ammonia spike. Still more helpful than starting sterile though!

Ok thanks.