Switching out rock question

[LEOreefer]

so I stated my tank with BRS reef saver dry rock. I miss the diversity of having all kinds of cool critters. I was thinking about ordering 20 pounds of live sand and 30 pounds of live rock from Tampa bay salt water. I would use the 30 pounds of LIVE rock and remove 90% of the rock I have now. My question is will I kill the fish in my tank due to a cycle? I know tons of people report not even having a cycle when use Tampa Bay Saltwater rocks. And yes I know the risk of getting unwanted hitchhikers.

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

It may throw a wrench into the stability of your tank for a little while but I suspect after a few weeks things would get back to normal-ish. You will need to keep a close eye on everything and make sure you don't move your current corals around too much.

 

[jakeh22]

Member “if you build it they will grow” you will have those critters if you wait long enough.

 

[ThunderGoose]

I added new live rock to an existing system (like you I missed the diversity, never going dry again). I also set up a nano tank just TBS live rock. The nano really didn't cycle and I didn't see any negative affects from adding live to my existing tank.

I do now have a mantis shrimp in my existing tank but as far as I can tell she's only killed a few snails and sexy shrimp.

 

[shred5]

Agreed on diversity. I am ordering some live rock for my next build.. Problem is getting quality is hard to get unless aquacultured. Yea I miss some of the rare stuff that comes out of the rock. I miss all the critters in the rock that help keep the rock clean inside and out. I think it is the reason so many have issues with algae and dinos lately. I miss all the mysis shrimp. I miss all the cool stuff that crawls out.. . Cool snails, corals, crabs, shrimp, even fish. I feel sorry for those who have never had live rock and never experienced looking at the tank at night with a flashlight and seeing all the life.

Everyone is so paranoid of things like flatworms, which is unwarranted, most are not pest. Even using dead rock does not stop you from getting this stuff. So many are so afraid of getting something in their tank. There has been nothing that I have had that I could not get rid of on live rock. I have had more issues with dead rock because of lack of diversity. I have had more pest with dead rock. I have had more algae issue with dead rock. No diversity of critters to eat the stuff.

With TBS live rock they ship wet so there should not be a ton of die off but there will be some.. I would Quarantine it for bad stuff and die off before adding to a established tank. I have ordered live rock from allot of places over the years and other than a crab or mantis which are easy to catch. TBS seems to have a few more bad hitch hikers. They do seem to have less bad algae though and lot more sponges.

My current build I am thinking of some TBS and some other live rock mixed with some real reef rock.

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

Member “if you build it they will grow” you will have those critters if you wait long enough.

Yes, but "long enough" is not necessarily just a month or two. I've been having poor success in my tank for 2.5 years now. I've been reefing for 11 years now and this tank with dry rock is the worst I've ever tried to keep. I'm tired of failing, especially when so many people just go to the LFS, get some live rock, and are growing acros in 2 - 3 months.

@Curryb15 I am planning on doing something similar for similar reasons. I'm ordering rock from KP Aquatics, and my plan is to remove all my old rock and replace it with the KP Aquatics rock. Whether you get a cycle or not depends on how much life there is on the rock, and how much dies off during shipping. I'm going to cure my rock in a 5 gallon bucket with a powerhead and heater for at least 2 weeks with 100% water changes every few days.

Personally, I would not put the rock directly into an aquarium with live animals. Even if you air freight the rock and and it's shipped in water, there's still going to be some die off. It might not be a significant amount, but I personally don't want to take any chances when it comes to the animals in my tank.

 

[C-Reefer]

All you need to do is get a few pounds of live rock and put it in. You will get all the biodiversity in a few months without completely turning everything upside down and replacing everything. Or even get some live rock rubble from your LFS and stick it in. All it needs is one or two of everything to get in and they will quickly duplicate. If you want pods get a shipment from AlgaeBarn.

 

[LEOreefer]

Member “if you build it they will grow” you will have those critters if you wait long enough.

Excuse my ignorance but how would that happen? I dip all my corals and only have a serpentine star. Is there anywhere I can purchase stuff like the little critters

 

[LEOreefer]

Yes, but "long enough" is not necessarily just a month or two. I've been having poor success in my tank for 2.5 years now. I've been reefing for 11 years now and this tank with dry rock is the worst I've ever tried to keep. I'm tired of failing, especially when so many people just go to the LFS, get some live rock, and are growing acros in 2 - 3 months.

@Curryb15 I am planning on doing something similar for similar reasons. I'm ordering rock from KP Aquatics, and my plan is to remove all my old rock and replace it with the KP Aquatics rock. Whether you get a cycle or not depends on how much life there is on the rock, and how much dies off during shipping. I'm going to cure my rock in a 5 gallon bucket with a powerhead and heater for at least 2 weeks with 100% water changes every few days.

Personally, I would not put the rock directly into an aquarium with live animals. Even if you air freight the rock and and it's shipped in water, there's still going to be some die off. It might not be a significant amount, but I personally don't want to take any chances when it comes to the animals in my tank.

Thank you for the response. I might go the route of just getting a few pounds of live rock and putting it in the tank. The dieoff from the rock should be handled by my existing bio filtration

 

[rtparty]

Excuse my ignorance but how would that happen? I dip all my corals and only have a serpentine star. Is there anywhere I can purchase stuff like the little critters

A dry rock setup will only ever have what you add, purposely or on accident. If you QT like crazy, you will never have the bio diversity that a true live rock tank will. Even without QT you will never get the same level of diversity without specifically adding things. There are things that come in on live rock that you won't find anywhere else no matter how hard you try.

I've done my last dry rock tank ever. It's been a year of struggles, death and battles that I've never dealt with when using live rock. One bad crab is far easier to deal with than 8 months of dinos.

As for the original question: setup some kind of curing station. 5g buckets, a Brute garbage can, a used tank. Cure it for a couple weeks with a heater and power heads and then make the switch. There will be die off and you will register some ammonia that can be deadly for your fish. Rather be safe than sorry here.

 

[Halal Hotdog]

I would imagine if you start carbon dosing a few weeks prior to switching out the rock, then you may create a large enough bacterial population where you may not get any cycle at all. Also having a QT ready to move fish into may not be a bad idea.

I am also kind of surprised to see so many people have struggled with dry rock. So far my entire setup (minus 1lb of rubble) is all dry rock, and kind of like having the ability to control the biodiversity. The BRS 160 I believe was all dry rock, and it seems it worked out quite well for them.

 

[shred5]

All you need to do is get a few pounds of live rock and put it in. You will get all the biodiversity in a few months without completely turning everything upside down and replacing everything. Or even get some live rock rubble from your LFS and stick it in. All it needs is one or two of everything to get in and they will quickly duplicate. If you want pods get a shipment from AlgaeBarn.

I agree and I disagree.. I do not think you need all live rock but depending one the size a few pounds wont do it.. Yea some of the stuff may spread but with a few pounds it could take a long time for some stuff. It really depends on what you want... I think you could get allot of the pods this way and possibly coralline. Sponges are great for biodiversity and with a few pounds you may get some. Again it depends what you want and it depends especially on the quality of rock.. Boat rock will have little diversity. . You can get even more diversity buying rocks from different area. I have got fish and I got some zoanthids that were not in the hobby at all once. There are chances of getting a coral not in the hobby.

 

[LEOreefer]

I agree and I disagree.. I do not think you need all live rock but depending one the size a few pounds wont do it.. Yea some of the stuff may spread but with a few pounds it could take a long time for some stuff. It really depends on what you want... I think you could get allot of the pods this way and possibly coralline. Sponges are great for biodiversity and with a few pounds you may get some. Again it depends what you want and it depends especially on the quality of rock.. Boat rock will have little diversity. . You can get even more diversity buying rocks from different area. I have got fish and I got some zoanthids that were not in the hobby at all once. There are chances of getting a coral not in the hobby.

Where would you recommend getting some rock from a different area?

 

[LEOreefer]

It’s not that I’m having tons of problems, I battle brown hair alage when I feed sparingly, weekly water changes , weekly sand stirs and average bio load and I still get the alage. Now here’s the crazy part. I have a 2nd tank a 10 gal nano it had 4 pieces of live rock and no dry rock, for lighting I run a hydra 52 hd about a foot above the tank for 10 hours a day. Filtration is filter floss, a bag of matrix and that’s it! No skimmer ! 2 fish and they get fed frozen food once a day. Guess what ? Not a spec of alage on the rock. This got me wondering if my dry rock was truly a loosing battle

 

[shred5]

Where would you recommend getting some rock from a different area?

I do not even know I am starting to research it now for my new build.. Rock is getting harder to get. I always got mine from Premium Aquatics because they took care of the rock but they do not have any live rock in stock.

I was thinking part Tampa bay pukani and not the Walt Smith stuff they carry. Tampa Bay ships the rock in water so little die off and it is cheap for airfreight. But aqua cultured is heavy rock but biodiversity is the highest do to shipping.

I am looking at other places too... I am open to suggestion if anyone knows who caries high quality live rock anymore I have a LFS that has 3 varieties they get in air freight. I can pick it up directly before hitting their tanks. I am going to stop down there this weekend and take a look at it.. Boat rock is easy to find but you wont get much on it. I bought some of that and it was cool for coralline but not much else alive. It seems allot is either aqua-cultured or boat rock, air rock is real expensive now.

Everyone has been convinced live rock is so bad, so many are afraid of it not allot of places are getting live rock anymore.

 

[Halal Hotdog]

I agree and I disagree.. I do not think you need all live rock but depending one the size a few pounds wont do it.. Yea some of the stuff may spread but with a few pounds it could take a long time for some stuff. It really depends on what you want... I think you could get allot of the pods this way and possibly coralline. Sponges are great for biodiversity and with a few pounds you may get some. Again it depends what you want and it depends especially on the quality of rock.. Boat rock will have little diversity. . You can get even more diversity buying rocks from different area. I have got fish and I got some zoanthids that were not in the hobby at all once. There are chances of getting a coral not in the hobby.

What type of fish did you get in your live rock? Crazy to think it could survive the entire process from ocean to your tank.

 

[shred5]

What type of fish did you get in your live rock? Crazy to think it could survive the entire process from ocean to your tank.

It was some little goby, It survived in the hole. I ordered the rock from a lfs and it was Florida live rock when you could get it. It may have came right off the boat boxed and shipped It may have been a 1/2 day to my tank a for sure under a day. I have heard of others getting fish too.

 

[Halal Hotdog]

It was some little goby, It survived in the hole. I ordered the rock from a lfs and it was Florida live rock when you could get it. It may have came right off the boat boxed and shipped It may have been a 1/2 day to my tank a for sure under a day. I have heard of others getting fish too.

I see you are in Waukesha, I am in the falls. Which LFS did you go to?

 

[HolisticBear]

I'm ordering rock from KP Aquatics

Why did you chose KP over TBS?

 

[shred5]

I see you are in Waukesha, I am in the falls. Which LFS did you go to?

I use mainly Bestfish.. The only live rock they carry is Gulfview which is very good aqua cultured rock and he picks it up himself. The rock I am looking at is from a place I have never been too yet called Milwaukee aquatics. I heard their rock is good and can be picked up the day they get it.. I want to see it first though because I do not really trust the place. Bestfish gets all my business on what he carries that I need but sometimes he does not have something or can not order it. The owner is a real good guy.
I will probably get some rock from Bestfish too if I go partly aqua cultured on my new build..

I have always order rock through Premium Aquatics, they just do not have it anymore.