Saltybumfuzzle_
New Member
So I came to learn that the lfs around me aren't very good and I didn't trust them enough to buy their live rock. One of them even refused to sell me a piece, becuase it was "too big" for my tank and separating it into smaller sections to scape my tank was "a dumb idea". At the time I couldn't find a trustworthy place to get quality rock from, so I ended up buying Caribsea "life rock" because it was my only decent option at the time. But now that my tank is set up and I've found some new lfs, even though they're over an hour away (which I'm okay with) and I'm adding corals, I'm starting to really not like this fake purple rock. It's affecting the look of the tank by making everything all blend together into this boring purple color.
I plan on replacing the rock and I have a plan, but while this definitely isn't my first reef tank it is my first time using this rock and also going to try replacing rock in a cycled tank. I'm just posting to see others' experience replacing rock and I think the method I came up with would be the best course of action to take. But I always welcome outside opinions and suggestions.
I plan on buying a 5 gallon bucket and adding the rock I plan on using and putting a small pump from my filter, feeding water into the bucket. I'll have a couple PVC fittings come out of a hole about 2/3 of the way up the bucket, so as the water comes into the bucket and flows over the rocks and circulates back out basically as an overflow. I don't have a sump on this little tank and I definitely don't have room to add these into the back compartment. But I also can't just remove 90% of my nitrifying bacteria, by just replacing all the rock. I figured having this system setup for a few weeks would allow the bacteria to populate the new rock and then I would be able to scape with the new rock and then put the existing rock into the bucket and remove a piece of the old rock out of the bucket once every few days, or so. This way slowly removing the old rock at the end, would cause the bacteria population to adjust accordingly, while also staying stable enough to support my system.
Hopefully my drawing will make sense :face-with-tears-of-joy: I just don't like the unnatural look and I just hate how it makes my whole tank and corals look like one big glob of purple. The first photo is with natural sunlight beaming through the window and the other photo is the tank alone with my Ai Prime, but my phone camera sucks and it makes it look way more blue than it is.
I plan on replacing the rock and I have a plan, but while this definitely isn't my first reef tank it is my first time using this rock and also going to try replacing rock in a cycled tank. I'm just posting to see others' experience replacing rock and I think the method I came up with would be the best course of action to take. But I always welcome outside opinions and suggestions.
I plan on buying a 5 gallon bucket and adding the rock I plan on using and putting a small pump from my filter, feeding water into the bucket. I'll have a couple PVC fittings come out of a hole about 2/3 of the way up the bucket, so as the water comes into the bucket and flows over the rocks and circulates back out basically as an overflow. I don't have a sump on this little tank and I definitely don't have room to add these into the back compartment. But I also can't just remove 90% of my nitrifying bacteria, by just replacing all the rock. I figured having this system setup for a few weeks would allow the bacteria to populate the new rock and then I would be able to scape with the new rock and then put the existing rock into the bucket and remove a piece of the old rock out of the bucket once every few days, or so. This way slowly removing the old rock at the end, would cause the bacteria population to adjust accordingly, while also staying stable enough to support my system.
Hopefully my drawing will make sense :face-with-tears-of-joy: I just don't like the unnatural look and I just hate how it makes my whole tank and corals look like one big glob of purple. The first photo is with natural sunlight beaming through the window and the other photo is the tank alone with my Ai Prime, but my phone camera sucks and it makes it look way more blue than it is.
