How long does it take to cycle rocks in bin to redo aquascape AND be safe for corals

[katsreef]

I have a 20g tank that's been running for 7 months. I am taking out ALL of the rocks and putting in all new ones at the SAME time (not redoing sand btw). The rocks are two little fishies stax and do not need curing as they are dry rock

My new rocks have been cycling for 13 days so far. No ammonia detectable after dosing it, but still nitrites at 1. I am waiting for it to be cycled fully. How long should I wait to replace all of the rocks at the same time so that they are stable enough to not cause catastrophe for my corals?

 

[brandon429]

I have a thread specializing in that prediction

What brand of cycling bac did you use

 

[katsreef]

I have a thread specializing in that prediction

What brand of cycling bac did you use

Fritz900 at 5x the dosage

 

[brandon429]

I'm positive it'll go now, that's longer than the charted adherence time in dr reefs bottle bac thread for that strain, it's the fastest.

2 days to implantation, this is day 13. Your challenge moves from cycling and now into corals used to a food web on the prior rocks now to be without, phosphate balances between the rock and the system and battling the uglies since uncured rock is about to be brightly lit

Why the switch out

For sure the cycle is ok. There are instances of fully dry setups receiving a bunch of established corals but they're rare, usually the mature rock is best

Ideal: delay the swap for six months

Move all the current new scape into a sump, or set up a different curing trash can reef and let the new rock mature with some of the current live rock in the water path

The cycle for ammonia control is the easy part

 

[katsreef]

I'm positive it'll go now, that's longer than the charted adherence time in dr reefs bottle bac thread for that strain, it's the fastest.

2 days to implantation, this is day 13. Your challenge moves from cycling and now into corals used to a food web on the prior rocks now to be without, phosphate balances between the rock and the system and battling the uglies since uncured rock is about to be brightly lit

Why the switch out

For sure the cycle is ok. There are instances of fully dry setups receiving a bunch of established corals but they're rare, usually the mature rock is best

Ideal: delay the swap for six months

Move all the current new scape into a sump, or set up a different curing trash can reef and let the new rock mature with some of the current live rock in the water path

The cycle for ammonia control is the easy part

I still have nitrite so I want it to hit 0 first for sure. I will have to make sure the phosphate is in an ideal range. Unfortunately no old rock will be mixed in as there is a lot of pest algae that I don’t want transferred over that way

new rock is so I can remove plenty of pest algae- and then gives me a more stable base that I can easily remove/move around, and more space for corals. Basically I just want to know how to tell it is safe to do a full rock swap without upsetting my corals too much

 

[brandon429]

It’s safe now, if you have just cycled a similar degree of rock. The way you know it’s ready using updated cycling science is that nitrite doesn’t factor in reef cycling and once you’re past day two on a Fritz cycle, a 100% water change couldn’t peel the bacteria off your prepped surface area. (The means by which dr reef inferred Fritz cycle bac adherence time in his giant thread was changing out all the test water on day two, then redosing ammonia and watching it go down, on a seneye.)

waiting longer can’t get your rock ready to handle ammonia more than it is right now. It can be used now. Your battle is loss of the microbenthic support food web.