Seasoning Rock

[Susan Edwards]

I'm starting my new tank with Real Reef and Caribsea rock. I'll add some of my current live rock to the new tank (those with coral on them). I have 1 paly colony and some zoas that need to be attached to rock to become their own rock islands. I'm debating putting those zoa's on their new "zoa garden" structure and letting that rock season in the current tank. I also have a paly colony to attach to a rock. I can glue it on the rock it is on--just sitting on it right now--or use new rock.

I just got rid of all the algae in that tank. I don't want to bring algae into the new tank (though there are 4 rocks of corals to bring over) by putting my new rocks in that tank, yet this would also give me some more "live" rock in the new tank.

What do you think? Get the zoas growing on their new structure or wait until October when new tank is up and running

 

[admiralmcstabby]

You are never going to *not* bring algae into your tank :-D that's just the nature of the game. Algae spores hitchhike on corals, frag pieces, on tissue of inhabitants...fish even! You could have created a completely sterile tank and algae will *always* find a way. Algae just takes one spore to spread into a tank. If you're building a new tank, you're going to inevitably go through a new cycle.

Instability, seeding from your old tank, lack of tank maturity (even if you use all your old water and rock the tank will still be pretty much go through some kind of cycle if it's a bigger tank), if you're bringing your substrate over from the old tank that's going to kick up a lot of the nutrients and bacteria that's settled into the current substrate setup...there's a lot that's going to play a part in how your new tank is going to "cycle" again.

You can always do a dip of your current live rock to help eliminate what algae is on there (and possibly any unwanted hitchhikers you may currently have) but chances are algae is going to find its way into your new tank. As long as you continue to keep your nutrients in check (nitrates, phosphates, silicates, etc) you should still be able to manage the algae.

There are a few ways to dip live rock. You can use CoralRX for example, or some people have a bucket with a higher specific gravity to get rid of hitchhikers and even a freshwater dip..there's a few ways to dip live rock you can find on this forum, but again, it's inevitable that you will bring algae spores into your new tank IMHO.

 

[Susan Edwards]

You are never going to *not* bring algae into your tank :-D that's just the nature of the game. Algae spores hitchhike on corals, frag pieces, on tissue of inhabitants...fish even! You could have created a completely sterile tank and algae will *always* find a way. Algae just takes one spore to spread into a tank. If you're building a new tank, you're going to inevitably go through a new cycle.

thanks, and true. I just cleared up super bad algae in my current tank with reef flux. Suspect some of it was bryopsis and a lot of turf. I just want to be super vigilant this time around!

Nutrients are all super good--best that tank has ever been! This time around I went with different rock as I had so much trouble with the marco rock in that tank--partly my own fault as I forgot to rinse it really good! I also had used a super fine sand which I removed last september.

I'll be using a medium live sand, a few pieces of old rock in display (with corals) and will add a few more to the sump to start off my pod population. Also bottle bacteria and as much old water as I can, so I should be able to avoid too big a cycle with the caribsea and Real Reef. I hope lol's.

So I'll start my zoa garden and put it in the soon to be old tank .