adding dry rock to an established tank

[nickkuczynski5280]

HI everyone. im new to the hobby, I recently acquired a 32 gal biocube fully running. the only thing in there right now is 10 blue leg hermits and 4 trochus snails. one larg rock maybe 5-6lbs covered in gsp. My question is id eventually like to change the scape. That being said, would it be okay to add RO rinsed dry rock straight to the tank? or should i cycle separately in a bucket or trashcan? Edit: parameters- Amonia:0 Nitrate: roughly 0-5ppm Nitrite:0 PH:8.3

 

[Reefer Brent]

I rinsed my new unused dry rock in tank water from a water change. I was told as long as it wasn't used before you should be good. I'm only a couple weeks in but no issues so far.

 

[lombeard]

If you only have snails / hermits in there then it will likely be fine, I'd only really worry if you had acropora or other SPS in there given the smaller water volume but even then it would likely be fine. I've personally never had issues doing it in any of my tanks.

 

[Garf]

I'd probably gravel vac the area of sand directly under the new building site first, if indeed there is any sand in there, lol.

 

[nickkuczynski5280]

I'd probably gravel vac the area of sand directly under the new building site first, if indeed there is any sand in there, lol.

haha yes there in sand in there sorry

 

[Nate Chalk]

I added a bunch to my tank when I upgraded to a larger tank.

No Ill problems

 

[KrisReef]

I put some “new” dry coral rock in a 5 gallon bucket with fresh mixed water and two days later I measured and increased level to phosphate in the bucket.

When you put new dry rock in an established tank the concern is how that will impact your parameters for awhile, and then the rock will have to cycle through the stages of development into reef (live) rock which may include various “ugly” stages.

Eventually it will become covered in coralline algae and coral but how long all that takes isn’t possible to know until you add the rock and see how it goes. If it does have a lot of ugly stages it can impact the environment in the tank but if you need more rock you will have to add it sometime.

They used to say to cycle it in a bucket first, ( but that was aimed at fresh live rock) and the benefits of that included the rock was not getting blasted with light and prone to algae/plant growth. It also gave the coral hitchhikers that was attached to the rocks a slim chance of survival, but that’s not a concern with dry rocks.