I have a friend who has a severely neglected tank. 80g frag tank with a pair of clowns in it. He will just dump a ton of pellets in. Hasnt done a water change in years. Nitrates and Phosphates are gonna be off the charts. Im wondering if the rock in the tank is still good live rock or not? If he was to reboot the tank with 100% water change would he be able to house anemones, LPS, SPS? The tank a couple years ago housed a fully blown SPS tank.
neglected tank is live rock still good rock
- Thread starter burtonboy182
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Yes! IMO it’s priceless!
Just do a rip clean. Mix replacement water to correct temp and salinity, remove the fish and inverts, drain some water into bucket from tank and shake off debris from rocks, drain tank, replace or rinse the sand bed with tap water until water runs clear or replace with new sand, clean rock again in fresh saltwater and place sand and rock back in tank. Refill and add back the fish and inverts. Let the system run a few days before tasting the major tests and then stabilize the system before adding anymore fish or inverts. Should work out well. Many people have done a rip clean with success. Search the forum for their stories.
fish farmer
2500 Club Member
This.
I have live rock in my tank from 2000 and 2003, plus dry rock on 2010. Phosphates were 1 to 2 ppm, nitrates 30 ppm. I had chronic high phosphate from 2010 restart until around 2018 when I started to get a handle on nutrients again. WC and chaeto did it for me.
I get very low readings on my kits now.
Rmckoy
7500 Club Member
For the amount of food he’s dumping in. .
I would assume the nitrifying capability of the rocks would be highly increased .
but the downside would be leaching phosphates .
To answer the question , yes they are good as they will do their purpose of processing ammonia
I would assume the nitrifying capability of the rocks would be highly increased .
but the downside would be leaching phosphates .
To answer the question , yes they are good as they will do their purpose of processing ammonia
damsels are not mean
Valuable Member
Don't see why you need a 100% water change. That will probably do more damage to what's in there than good. The tank can already house all those things assuming pH, alk, salinity are all within normal ranges. Maybe a big one like 50% will help to make sure that's the case?
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