Considering Live Rock to Ornamental Conversion

[mluntz]

Comments, Concerns, Advice?

 

[mcgyvr]

Whats an ornamental conversion?

porous rock serves a purpose as far as providing ample surface area for bacteria to grow/clean the tank..

 

[mluntz]

Whats an ornamental conversion?

porous rock serves a purpose as far as providing ample surface area for bacteria to grow/clean the tank..

Considering removing the LR and doing a decorative fish only tank

 

[PsychoticBeauty]

That's fine, just as long as you have some other sort of biological filter to replace the rock. This could be a HOB filter, a canister filter etc. It would basically be no different than a freshwater tank, only there's salt in the water.

 

[DanConnor]

Why not leave the rock in? Fish in an empty tank doesn't seem right.

 

[nmotz]

Why not leave the rock in? Fish in an empty tank doesn't seem right.

Aesthetic preferences vary widely in this hobby and like the others said it's ok as long as the OP provides another means of biological filtration.

My thoughts are that unless you have a sump to put a whole bunch of LR/bio media, you wont have enough bacteria to deal with the biological load in your tank.

I have only about 20 lbs of LR in my 40B, but I have a HOB refugium with a bunch of marinepure spheres that add extra surface area for bio filtration. And I don't have a bunch of fish in my tank, just one mantis shrimp.

Bottom line is that it's risky unless you have a sump to include the necessary LR/bio media.

 

[mcgyvr]

Of course a fish only tank can be maintained at much higher levels of nitrate.. 100+ without really causing an issue..

 

[mluntz]

I am considering removing the LR and replacing it with artificial coral. I have a canister filter I can use. I could even keep the protein skimmer and the GFO reactor running.

 

[MondoBongo]

i would probably offer the advice that replacing the LR slowly would probably be the easiest way to go. say maybe one piece every week or two, monitoring for any ammonia spike.

swapping it out with whichever type of coral insert you wanted in a piecemeal fashion should allow your bacteria time to colonize the new surfaces without causing too much disruption at once to your bio filter.

 

[ReefsandGeeks]

+1, go slow with removing the rock. Also keep in mind the ornaments you put in can get algea/bacteria growth on them and will need some cleaning sometimes.

 

[Green Chromis]

:fish1: Why do you want to remove the Live Rock? :fish1:

 

[sde1500]

+1 to going slow, and replacing it bit by bit with the inserts. I'd look to add some siporax or marine pure as replacement areas for the bacteria too.