New Tank / Live rock in refugium and caribsea life rock in display?

[Zaxh]

The title says it all...


I am upgrading my tank and I plan on keeping everything in my current one. I purchased Caribsea Life rock which has "inactive beneficial bacteria". I was going to put this in my display tank and I was hoping that I could put a few pieces of live rock from my LFS into my refigum/sump for it to cycle faster.

Will this work? Or would i be better off putting some live rock into my display tank along with the caribsea life rock?

Cheers.

Trying my hardest to skip the ugly phase, but it will always be like the ugly duckling.

 

[MoshJosh]

I like Caribsea Life Rock, most of my scape is made of it. . . but as far as I know it is DEAD as a door nail. The coating on it I think can help replenish calcium overtime?

That said your plan should work just fine. Should not matter where the LR goes as long as it's plumbed into the system. . . will you skip the "uglies". . . maybe, maybe not. And it probably goes without saying but keeping the LR in your sump will not keep any potential pests out of the display.

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

I think colonization of the surfaces is a big part of skipping the ugle phase, so you will probably still want to do a no lights phase unless you have herbavores in your sto k already, but you will certainly be able to skip cycling if the rocks in the sump never dry out.

If I was doing what you are, I would take some small pieces of live rock to add your display aquascape to help bacteria that has already colonized your rock move onto the new, mostly dead at the least, rock.

 

[Zaxh]

I think colonization of the surfaces is a big part of skipping the ugle phase, so you will probably still want to do a no lights phase unless you have herbavores in your sto k already, but you will certainly be able to skip cycling if the rocks in the sump never dry out.

If I was doing what you are, I would take some small pieces of live rock to add your display aquascape to help bacteria that has already colonized your rock move onto the new, mostly dead at the least, rock.

Yeah, i was going to add Dr. Tims Bacteria as well. Do you recon that Adding coral right away will help with bacteria? I cannot find the thread, but I read somewhere that adding coral immediately (GSP and some other hardy beginner corals) will help the tank fill with better bacteria. I already fragged my GSP for this as well.

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

Yeah, i was going to add Dr. Tims Bacteria as well. Do you recon that Adding coral right away will help with bacteria? I cannot find the thread, but I read somewhere that adding coral immediately (GSP and some other hardy beginner corals) will help the tank fill with better bacteria. I already fragged my GSP for this as well.

TLDR: I am by no means an expert, but if you can get some level of your non photosynthetic to cover the new battlefields on the new tank, you can skip the uglies, adding the coral could certainly help with this, but if they need light you might be replaying some old battles on those fresh surfaces. So given this, I feel if you can avoid light for some time with the corals, or cut back, then its a no brainer, if you need full light for them on introduction to the new tank, plan to deal with some old enemies.

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Peronsally, if your previous system is being broken down to make this one, I would try moving the coral in right away.

If your previous system can run still while the new one starts, I would wait a month for bacteria to cover a little of the new rock first with lights off.


My thoughts that lead me to this TLDR conclusion:

Adding the coral will certainly help your microbiome take off, but if you can't keep them in the dark, you miiiight risk some algse blooms.


What I would really do in your situation if I can have the patience, is put as much of your new rock as you can, into the sump to give it a kickstart.

I have set rocks temporarily in my displays when I don't have room to cook them a little, but if you do it in the display, algae will definitely find it first and grow. Usually when I let a piece of dry rock cook in my system and let it receive light, I get to watch my tanks cycle play out again on the rock. Goes through all of my green algae phases on it. Ill see some turf cone and go, sea lettuce and GHA some up that I have to manually remove, then it turns green for a while with something my snails and crabs eat that never becomes more visible than a coloration of the rock. Literally the same order as my tank did from the start. But the dry rock I am mentioning is marco dry, so we are talking stark white cleaner than clean rock. My observations of this has lead me to beleive that none of the nuisance algaes from ugly phases really go away, they just lost all advantage and can't recolonize to the degree they did when we had them, if you put in an empty playing field, they get their chance again.

 

[Salty_Northerner]

Yeah, i was going to add Dr. Tims Bacteria as well. Do you recon that Adding coral right away will help with bacteria? I cannot find the thread, but I read somewhere that adding coral immediately (GSP and some other hardy beginner corals) will help the tank fill with better bacteria. I already fragged my GSP for this as well.

I'll tell you how the shop I buy from did it. Mixed the water for a few days in the system and then plopped in all the corals. That's how they get cycled FAST from my understanding. Like buddie said, they don't have the luxury to wait to cycle and that's why the do what they do.

 

[jda]

There is way more to live rock than bacteria. What you can add in a bottle is a rounding error as to what is on real live rock. I would put the live rock in the display.

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

I'll tell you how the shop I buy from did it. Mixed the water for a few days in the system and then plopped in all the corals. That's how they get cycled FAST from my understanding. Like buddie said, they don't have the luxury to wait to cycle and that's why the do what they do.

Corals themselves consume ammonia so the nitrogen cycle is not necessarily an issue unless we are talking high concentrations. The microbiome is going to be what may or may not be an issue, insufficient bacteria culture in the water column, which seem to be an important food source, and surfaces clear of life for nuisances to take hold in.

But the cycle itself won't be a problem for OP specifically due to the fact that they plant to transfer all of their live rock