How to change entire aquascape without causing a cycle.

[ssdawood]

I want to change the entire aquascape of the reef tank. Take all the old rocks out and start new.

My plan is to get dry rock. Put it in a brute can with heater and powerhead. Keep taking the reading till all the parameters read good. Then take the old rock out and aquascape the new one.

During this time I also want to reduce the amount of live rock and add siporax to make up for the difference.

Any ideas guys, I know some of you have better plan out there. Tell me what can go wrong and will this work.

Thanks

 

[fishguy597]

I've heard of people saying they get high po4 with dry rock for a considerable among of time.

 

[M Woodhill]

I've heard of people saying they get high po4 with dry rock for a considerable among of time.

Yes when they are soaked they leach tons of po4 into water column

 

[reefmutt]

i'd suggest adding a couple pieces of true live rock to your bucket of base rock during the curing and even add a little food of some sort to the bucket just to seed the base rock and to get bacteria growing throughout it..

 

[ssdawood]

Yes I am planning on seeding it. Might also use some nitrifying bacteria. Do waterchanges and finally when all parameters are in check then do the transfer. This will also take care of phosphates leeched by rock since I will be performing water changes.

Anything else I missed ?

 

[M Woodhill]

Yes I am planning on seeding it. Might also use some nitrifying bacteria. Do waterchanges and finally when all parameters are in check then do the transfer. This will also take care of phosphates leeched by rock since I will be performing water changes.

Anything else I missed ?

The dry rock will leash tons of po4. Acid bath possibly helps.

 

[Dapg8gt]

Agree with doing the Muriatic acid bath bath first. It will save you some time and money if your concentrating on cycling the(cleaner) rock vs curing/cooking off tons excess nutrients.

You would be surprised how much crap is on dry rock if you haven't used it before. I used bleach before acid with my shelf rock I just got from brs it will help with the organics left behind if it was ocean rock. After seeing it be the only rock in my display with any form of algae after adding a single piece of it after a me being lazy few day mini soak I knew it needed the full treatment =)

I would also suggest getting the siporax in the tank a while before you start this adventure so it colonizes with a heavy load of bacteria in case your curing of the new rocks won't keep up once added to the system. Keeping them clean of debris with pre filters imo is the most important part of having them functioning as desired long term.

Also I would suggest the live rock seeding option also but you are going to need to ghost feed the container quite a bit imo or dose pure ammonia ( that's what I did it worked great) to get the beficials up to the task of filtering the running tank.

Fwiw I cooked off some existing live rock (from a tank purchase) that was in bad shape nutrient wise and it took me almost 6 months of bi-monthly water changes to get p04 levels to where I was comfortable with them. I would expect some dirty dry rock to be that or longer without an acid bath. And you will need a way to either siphon the entire bottom of the curing container or a separate one to transfer the rock to because the amount of detritus that sheds off the rock through the cooking/curing process is quite a bit. Imo leaving it all in the bottom of the container will prolong the time you need in total. I used 2 55g brutes and it was fairly easy to manage.

Not sure if you won't have a cycle at all but I'm sure you can keep it to a small one if it happens .

 

[ssdawood]

Thanks guys, so far very good advice.

 

[Bpb]

I did this with my tank when it was about 1.5 years old with about 20 sps ultra mini colonies/large frags. I replaced about 75% of my total rock weight. Bleached and acid bathed then dried brand new rock. Cycled it in the garage for 2 months using a cup of funky sand from the display, and a bottle of bio spira. Swapped it all out at once, then a couple months later replaced my entire sandbed about 10% a week. No losses. It can be done. Just take advantage of siphoning out as much detritus as you can and replace your carbon and gfo a little more frequently. Extra water changes.