~3 year old 75 gal tank with 60 lbs live rock - what happens if I add more dry rock?

[Zpmada]

I have a 75 gallon tank with 20 gallon tank below for a sump with skimmer and chaeto refugium. The display also has about 1" sandbed, and 60lbs of live rock atleast 3 years old.

What would happen if I add about 50 lbs of dry rock that I cured with bleach, dried, rinsed again? Basically its completely dead dry rock. Would I go through the new tank process with neusance hair algae all over the new dry rock before its covered in coraline algae?

I would like more rockwork so that I can safely feed a manderine dragonet. How long would it take for copods to live, reproduce and establish themselves in this added 50lbs of new rock if the rest of the tank is about 3 years old? Thanks!

 

[Gregoryalln854]

I've added more rock when I had a reef, but never anything that was bleached. I would be worried that the bleach would still be on it. As long as the live rock you had was established and you added a few pieces over the course of a few months I doubt you would see a spike.
In the past when I had Manderines and wanted to boost my pod population I would go to a LFS that had established gravel beds and ask for a scoop of their sand/crushed coral. The best stuff I found was from an old timer that used under gravel filters with crushed gravel. this seeded the rock and the pods reproduced pretty fast.

 

[Timfish]

I wouldn't bleach rock persobnally. As far as adding some to get more pods growing are you seeing any in your sump? if not the question I'd want to answer before adding more rock is why aren't there 'pods and mysid shrimp reproducing in the sump?

 

[dakitez]

i am far from an expert so wait for more experienced people to chime in. Lets put aside the bleach thing for a sec. If you just added dead or dry rock I would see no reason for a tank spike. The rock is not like live stock where it is going to give off waste. I could be way off here so like I said get some other opions

 

[dakitez]

Sorry forgot the bleach thing. Rinse extremely well!! Even soak it in fresh water over night. You can not be too careful. I bleached dead coral in FO tanks before without a issue, but a reef tank is another story

 

[Zpmada]

I wouldn't bleach rock persobnally. As far as adding some to get more pods growing are you seeing any in your sump? if not the question I'd want to answer before adding more rock is why aren't there 'pods and mysid shrimp reproducing in the sump?

I do have critters in the sump. My refugium is made up of chaeto and the bottom is covered with a plate of bioblock. The porous bioblock has what looks like tiny mysid shrimp running in and out of the pores. They run and hide when the grow light comes on.

I dont know if I have any tisbe pods, which I understand are best for manderine dragonette because frankly I have a hard time seeing the critters that are smaller than what I think are mysid shrimp. I was suprised to see the mysid shrimp because I've been feeding frozen brine shrimp and didn't realize I have live ones in the tank too. Are they cold blooded and is it possible the frozen food came alive and started reproducing in the tank or is it likely they were introduced in other ways? Or is frozen brine shrimp different from mysid shrimp?

I bleached my rock from my old system because I had flatworms and bristleworms possibly a fireworm. I've watched many videos on how to do it and have rinsed with water and dried several times. I did this months ago and will keep rinsing and drying just to be safe while using dechlorinator. I'm very patient with the curing process since I don't really need the rock but I did spend alot of money buying it so I don't want to just throw it away.

 

[Oldreeferman]

You do not need to keep rinsing & drying sodium chloride (bleach), it naturally will evap when sitting in open air over time, i used to recycle gold using sodium chloride as one of my dissolving agents on powdered gold and silver i was processing, so chemistry with chemicals & exclusive with scary acids like nitric was well researched & a known. If you soak it overnight in RO water then allow the rock to sit outside in open air & even better in sunlight the sodium chloride will naturally dissipate quickly.
Give it a week tho to be 100% certain not knowing the % you diluted & how long you soaked in said solution.
Like was stated above if its clean dry dead rock it will not effect the DT it will only lack the benificial bacterias that must gain a foothold on & in it in order to house more DT inhabitants if you wish fast initial bacterial growth on the new rocks 1st place them in saltwater add a heater & a powerhead & then add ammonia every day as well as an initial bacteria load to start the process, then add ammonia ea day as recommended per say from Dr Tims etc. until the ammonia does not register at days end usually 2-3 weeks then you can add the rock & immediatly reap the benifits of more rockwork serving more bioload & pods etc.