Advice on (re)cycling Live rock?

[Ann Enomy]

I have a 120 gallon BTA dominated tank and want to get back to a mixed reef as I am planning an upgrade to 210 gallon. I plan on reserving one "anemone island" and make better efforts to stop migration and takeover. My tank has been up and running for 15 years and phosphates have been harder to keep under control the older the tank has gotten. I feel the phosphates are what stimulate rapid reproduction of the BTA's and I need to get a better handle on it.

As a test, I removed a rock, picked off the BTA's and put it in an aerated bucket of fresh SW and waited a day and yup it's leaching back unacceptable amounts of phosphates.

My thought is to remove half the rock to a brute trash can and try to use lanthanum chloride to get phosphates down then place in new tank and then do the other half of the rock. I have plenty of Ceramic balls in sump to carry the bioload while new tank cycles. My question is it worth it to do this? or should I just dump the rock and go with the new artificial live rock and start from scratch again?

 

[Subsea]

I would not start up with dry rock, no matter what.

First, what is your phosphate concentration?
Second, what is new artificial live rock?

“phosphates have been harder to keep under control the older the tank has gotten. I feel the phosphates are what stimulate rapid reproduction of the BTA's and I need to get a better handle on it.”

If I read this correctly, your inorganic phosphate is high and you feel that stimulates reproduction in BTA. When you say, “I need to get a better handle on it”, what is IT?

Please, explain your goal.

 

[Ann Enomy]

1. I use phosphate-e and GFO almost constantly to maintain about 0.08 phosphate. If I’m extra good on water changes I can briefly get it lower. If I get lazy (which happens) it will get 0.1-0.25 in a hurry.
2 . Marco rocks, carbi-sea ect artificial rocks that you buy dry in a box.
3. Times of high phosphate/neglect seem to be followed by a proliferation of the BTA’s, by getting a handle on “it” I am speaking about the phosphate levels so that the BTA’s don’t proliferate to the point where they kill out the rest of the reef.

15 years is a long time of accumulating nutrients and am just looking at the new tank as a way to reset as I know it is in fact the rocks that are leeching. Just looking for any advice
Thanks

 

[Tahoe61]

I don't see another choice than treating the rock in sections to significantly reduce the phosphate bound up in the rock, or using new dry rock pre-cycled. Fifteen years is a long time.

You didn't mention other corals. Have you considered starting fresh without BTA?

 

[Subsea]

Your phosphate numbers are not high.

I have no comment to BTA proliferation when
phosphate approaches 0.1ppm. I don’t consider that high and neither does @Randy Holmes-Farley.

I do know that your dry rock in a new tank will absorb phosphate and it will limit phosphate in bulk water until rock is saturated.

“15 years is a long time of accumulating nutrients and am just looking at the new tank as a way to reset as I know it is in fact the rocks that are leeching. Just looking for any advice”

My display tank is 25 years mature and I consider the nutrients in the sandbed as food for micro fauna & fana that feed the reef. While I would not transfer my substrate I would not hesitate to transfer all live rock, unless pest were involved.

 

[Ann Enomy]

Your phosphate numbers are not high.

I have no comment to BTA proliferation when
phosphate approaches 0.1ppm. I don’t consider that high and neither does @Randy Holmes-Farley.

I do know that your dry rock in a new tank will absorb phosphate and it will limit phosphate in bulk water until rock is saturated.

“15 years is a long time of accumulating nutrients and am just looking at the new tank as a way to reset as I know it is in fact the rocks that are leeching. Just looking for any advice”

My display tank is 25 years mature and I consider the nutrients in the sandbed as food for micro fauna & fana that feed the reef. While I would not transfer my substrate I would not hesitate to transfer all live rock, unless pest were involved.

No pests other than the BTA's. So I will go through the trouble of treating the rock. I should be able to keep a separate "island" for BTA as I will have 24" more length to play with. Thanks

 

[fishface NJ]

I would not treat the rocks. How old is your sand bed?

 

[Ann Enomy]

I would not treat the rocks. How old is your sand bed?

15 years as well, only 1 inch thick and vacuumed with water changes where able to

 

[slingfox]

Limited risk and downside in putting rocks in a tub with water, heats and some flow and treating with LC. People on this board have done this before without issue from what I recall. Unless you chance your feeding and husbandry practices the rocks may get to a similar spot over time anyhow so the question is what are your ultimate goals. Maybe you buy yourself some time where you does less LC and use less GFO but seems like you will end up in the same spot unless you make real change.

 

[Ann Enomy]

Limited risk and downside in putting rocks in a tub with water, heats and some flow and treating with LC. People on this board have done this before without issue from what I recall. Unless you chance your feeding and husbandry practices the rocks may get to a similar spot over time anyhow so the question is what are your ultimate goals. Maybe you buy yourself some time where you does less LC and use less GFO but seems like you will end up in the same spot unless you make real change.

I do plan on a major change in husbandry with the larger tank. The relocation to a different wall and additional room under the tank will be used to set up an automatic water change system. I know that topic can spark debate as well but with this being a waiting room office tank the less complicated the better. AWC's seem to fit that bill. Certainly better than the LC into the rollermat and GFO.

 

[Subsea]

Ann,
I would not treat the rock. However, since that is your path, consider bringing in biodiversity with diver collected live rock.

 

[exnisstech]

I seriously doubt that level of PO4 (which is not high IMO) is causing the nems to split. Mine were in PO4 of 0.4 - 0.7 for 6 years and rarely split. They split like mad the first year then settled down. I also stopped target feeding which may or may not have had an effect on them splitting. I decided to stop keeping nems with coral because the benefit wasn't worth the risk for me.

The tank shortly before I moved out of it.

As far as PO4 being high this is the replacement tank that has been running for 2+ years now. While I'm not keeping nems I'm also not seeing any problem with PO4 running 0.4 to a flashing 0.9 on my Hanna. I always have trouble understanding PO4 levels under 0.1 being blamed for anything abnormal. Maybe I'm just lucky and don't experience the problems others seem to have?

 

[Ann Enomy]

I also do not know for sure what is making the BTA’s reproduce. I suspect nutrients but only a theory.

What I do know is that I spend a lot of money and time on keeping phosphate as low as possible.

I will treat about half the rock and leave the other half untouched. My AWC system will use a DOS with 2, 15 gallon potable water containers. And will have system set to change out 15 gallons a week. Hopefully over time that will allow me to stop using LC ac GFO all together and simplify my setup

Thanks for all the advice!