I recently bought an already established reef tank. I would like to eventually rescape the tank but with minimal damage/setbacks with coral,fish etc. I already purchased some Carib sea life rocks as they have a shapes pack with arches etc that I like. My question is how fast can I swap out the live rock? I want to use all four of the new pieces (20lbs) along with some of the nicer old pieces already covered in coral. My plan is to take out the pieces without coral and swap for the new pieces one at a time. My current plan is to take one piece out and place two new pieces in. then in two weeks take another piece out and put the remaining two in. Finally after another 2 weeks taking out one or two final pieces of old leaving me with 4 new and 2 old pieces. Does this time frame sound ok? Of course i will be monitoring parameters. Do you think I can do it any faster? Should I go slower? Would it be better to cram the four new pieces and wait 6 weeks then remove the pieces I don’t want?
Live rock question
- Thread starter Jhoussock
- Start date
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First, is the 'life rock' live or dry? I am not familiar with this product...
If your tank has a good amount of live rock in it, swapping one rock every couple weeks should be fine (assuming each rock is under 10 lbs). This is assuming the 'Life Rock' is dry and not live.
If you are new to the hobby, stick to one rock every couple weeks. You will likely get an extended diatom bloom or something similar (some call these mini-cycles), but better safe than sorry. Go slow, it should be fine.
If your tank has a good amount of live rock in it, swapping one rock every couple weeks should be fine (assuming each rock is under 10 lbs). This is assuming the 'Life Rock' is dry and not live.
If you are new to the hobby, stick to one rock every couple weeks. You will likely get an extended diatom bloom or something similar (some call these mini-cycles), but better safe than sorry. Go slow, it should be fine.
I think it’s in between
Sounds like dry but with infused bacteria for a quicker cycle. I was able to put two new rocks in without the tank looking over crowded so I’ll probably take one out tomorrow and add a third of the new rocks adding rock should matter right? Only taking them out? I definitely don’t need to worry about die off with the new stuff...
Sounds like dry but with infused bacteria for a quicker cycle. I was able to put two new rocks in without the tank looking over crowded so I’ll probably take one out tomorrow and add a third of the new rocks adding rock should matter right? Only taking them out? I definitely don’t need to worry about die off with the new stuff...
Coralreefer1
Valuable Member
If the live rock has been cured, you don’t need to take time acclimating the rock. If it is uncurled, then it becomes a different story due to die off and water parameter fluctuations with ammonia, nitrites and nitrates, not to forget increased phosphates
How big is the tank?
It’s a Red Sea reefer 250 65 gallons ...with some organization I was able to actually get the new stuff in and take out only one of about 8 pieces of the old. Now I have a new question though....some of my rock is stacked in a way that’s it’s against the back glass. How risky is this? I will say most of the wait is downward but there are few points of contact.
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