Live rock in nano

[Pvillarraga]

Ok so I bought new piece of rock last Saturday and put in the tank. The Rock was already in the tank at a LFS. I put it in my 6 gallon fluval edge along with a scallop. I checked the parameters the next day and noticed my ammonia was up just a tad and nitrates. I proceeded to remove the rock. I removed the rock and scallop on Monday. I gave the scallop to a friend and put the rock in a bucket with a power head. It has been in there since Monday. I killed some aiptasia on it and still looking to kill more. My question is the bucket did not have a heater is it going to do anything to the rock? Can I put the rock back in on Saturday, will it cause and problems. My tank runs between 78-80 and the bucket is probably 73-75 thank you for your help everyone

 

[Pvillarraga]

Is there going to be "die off" and cause a mini cycle/ammonia spike?

 

[Pvillarraga]

no help

no help

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[Juanrmattos]

If your Nano tank is on the small side (5, 8, 10 or even 14), introducing a big rock can affect the balance inside of it... Remember, most of the rock available at the local fish stores is either uncured or fresh into their tanks. If your coral stock is small, I wouldn't worry too much about the ammonia spike, just introduce the new rock and take the necessary steps to bring the ammonia down; Leaving the rock in the bucket with the intention of introducing it later is not going to help at all. You will have the "mini-cycle" spike no matter what.

If your reef is already heavily populated, I would consider returning the rock to your store.

 

[Pvillarraga]

Is there another solution to putting rock in. Dry rock? Or anything else I have a clown fish clean up crew and few frags

 

[Juanrmattos]

Your tank has its own ecosystem... Adding a any rock considerable to the size of the environment is bound to take it off balance (This is the exact reason why we have to strap ourselves while we wait for the system to cycle once the rock work has been all introduced into the tank for the first time).

 

[Pvillarraga]

I understand that but I would like to get more rock because i am going to be adding coral. The tank is established, or should I just stick w/ the 3.5 pounds I have?

 

[Juanrmattos]

The very first thing is to find the cause for the ammonia spike, a well established tank usually don't have this kind of problem because the bacteria contained in it has the ability to break it down... Now, we are assuming it was your rock that caused the spike, but there are many other things like a poor biological process (Bad filtration and flow), a bad salt mix, bacterial nitrification (The rock) and even from excess algage that could have caused it... In any case, you can use an ammonia binder (Hydroxymethanesulfonate, Hydrosulfite or Bisulfite ) and combine them with daily water changes (Please make sure the new water has no ammonia and keep in mind the percentage of the water change will only drop its equal to the ammonia, for example a 20% water change will reduce the ammonia in 20%).

Lastly, you may want to consider taking your few corals and fish to your friend's, arrange the rock and treat the water to optimal conditions before adding anything else to it.