Adding Uncured Reef Rubble to Established Tank

[george9]

Hi all! I started my tank with only dry rock and bottled bacteria and I failed to seed the rock with a bit of real established live rock, so I am thinking my tank is lacking in bacterial biodiversity. I've been dealing with a mild amphidium dinos outbreak in my sand bed and am increasing nutrients, dosing phyto and MicroBacter and ordered 1lb of small established live rock rubble to further diversify the bacteria in the tank.

My question is: the rock shipment is unfortunately delayed and will be stuck in transit over the weekend (4 days total transit time). If I add this 1lb of small rock fragments to the tank with around 25lbs of established rock, do you think it would be enough to cause mini-cycle issues? I'm thinking it might be best to dump the new rocks in a heated bucket with circulation and at least test ammonia before I add to the tank.

Is this overkill or a necessary thing I should plan on?

Thanks!

 

[KonradTO]

Bump

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Smell the rock when you get it. If it smells like rotten eggs then organisms have started to decay and release ammonia...if it smells fine then it's ok

 

[george9]

Im sure there will be some die off and some ammonia release, the question is though if the small fragments will be able to release enough ammonia to overload the already established bio filter in the tank? Since my tank has been running for 7ish months it could hypothetically be able to take a small amount of added ammonia maybe? especially as I continue to dose bottled bacteria to further increase biodiversity.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Im sure there will be some die off and some ammonia release, the question is though if the small fragments will be able to release enough ammonia to overload the already established bio filter in the tank? Since my tank has been running for 7ish months it could hypothetically be able to take a small amount of added ammonia maybe? especially as I continue to dose bottled bacteria to further increase biodiversity.

Just reread your post...yeah, there's no problem with putting the rock in a bucket first to test it just to be safe...no problem at all

 

[george9]

I think I will plan on keeping them in a bucket for 24 hours and testing ammonia after. If it is 0 then I’ll just toss them in the tank since it’s just rubble.

That’s the plan unless someone one chimes in with “I put uncured rubble in my reef and it crashed the entire tank!” between now and then lol

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

I think I will plan on keeping them in a bucket for 24 hours and testing ammonia after. If it is 0 then I’ll just toss them in the tank since it’s just rubble.

That’s the plan unless someone one chimes in with “I put uncured rubble in my reef and it crashed the entire tank!” between now and then lol

You're almost certainly just fine...

 

[gbroadbridge]

I think I will plan on keeping them in a bucket for 24 hours and testing ammonia after. If it is 0 then I’ll just toss them in the tank since it’s just rubble.

^^^ What I would do.