Transferring live rock to new tank

[Protodad]

Hey all. I’m setting up a used tank and it came with (very) live rock. Basically the tank looked like a swamp and I can only imaging what is living in the rock.
I’m planning to bleach that rock and set up the aquarium with it.
Thing is, I have an existing tank with healthy live rock (and some with things like GSP on it). Can I add that rock to the new tank after it has cycled without any detrimental effects to the corals living on it?

 

[Ron Reefman]

You can add clean dry rock to a tank with live rock and coral without issue. It will not cause a cycle unless it's not clean (i.e. has dead stuff on it which will create ammonia).

You can even pull your rock with coral on it and put in a bucket for a few minutes while you add new rock and then put your rock with coral on top. Or put saltwater in the bucket and then rock and coral can stay in there for hours with no flow, for days with flow.

I pull most or all of my rock every 2 or 3 years just to make the tank look different and it gives me a chance to clean things up some as well.

 

[Protodad]

Got it. I’m mostly looking for the other way around. Can I add fully cycled rock from one tank to a different fully cycled tank without causing issues.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Yes you can, there shouldn't be any issues at all!

 

[Protodad]

Thanks!

 

[joe2]

You can buy dry live rock on Amazon cheap enough that it makes no sense to bleach live rock with unwanted growth. You will be still stuck with rotting organics in that rock and the biggest issue is that the live rock may have been in a tank where someone used tap water or otherwise let it get saturated with Phosphates and other undesirable stuff. You can use some kind of Phosphuric acid to burn these off but why bother?

 

[Protodad]

Dunno. I’m not sure $300 of dry rock is what I would call cheap.