swapping out all the rock - need advice

[Coral Bros]

hello reefers. i have a 160- gallon mixed sps/lps tank that has been thriving for the last 3 years. it's doing so well i have some rogue pollicipora spawning and popping up on my rocks. i totally want to redo my rock work with shelves and caves. i have about 100lbs or rock in the tank now that is about 3 yrs old. i was planning on swapping out the old rock with new dry rock. the same amount but a new aquascape with the new dry rock. i dont plan on keeping the old rock as the pollicpora has spread to all the crevices of the rocks. i also can't do it in phases fearing the pollicipora will attach to the new rock so i was thinking about doing it all at once. any thoughts? and after i get this done, i will not have policpora in the tank

 

[vetteguy53081]

You could but expect some changes with ammonia /nitrates and even ugly phases

 

[Brandon3152134]

Cycle the dry rock for a while like 6 months plus. How do you have pocillapora sprouting out of your rocks.

 

[Brandon3152134]

Pics?

 

[DeepintheReef]

Cycle the dry rock for a while like 6 months plus. How do you have pocillapora sprouting out of your rocks.

They start reproducing and spores land everywhere, nearly impossible to keep up with once they get a foothold

 

[Coral Bros]

Pics?

I have rainbow and greens sprouting together. My friends love the patterns but it's taking up too much rock. None of those were planted there. They just randomly appear. I even have a rainbow sprouting below my overflow. It's everywhere.

 

[Coral Bros]

And here is a rainbow sprouting on my Neptune bounce frag. It's like the sps aiptasia.

 

[Ippyroy]

I would try to build the scape and cycle it in tubs with as much of the current rock as possible. No lights, just heat and flow. It would help stop or slow down the ugly stages and speed up the maturing of the tank. Otherwise I would add some rocks to the fuge, buy a large piece of live rock, put it in the tank and add the new scape.

 

[Rmckoy]

If I was closer , I’d buy some of the old rocks just for the pocillipora

 

[Brandon3152134]

If I was closer , I’d buy some of the old rocks just for the pocillipora

For real I wish I had this issue. Can you not just remove them they dont grow like majanos. They have a hard skeleton I'd just clip them at the base and sell them honestly.

 

[brandon429]

Amazing sps issue there. You have a frag money pump.

Here’s a work thread for the exact rock swap you are considering.
I recommend doing this zero percent, but there it is should you want to

Connecting Established Reef To New Tank

EDIT: In conclusion, if using the method I did - connecting an established reef to a new system with dry rock (clean), I recommend the following: 1. Dose your new tank prior to connecting to your old tank with NO3 and PO4 enough to raise to your established tank levels. 2. Take your skimmer...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Coral Bros]

Amazing sps issue there. You have a frag money pump.

Here’s a work thread for the exact rock swap you are considering.
I recommend doing this zero percent, but there it is should you want to

Connecting Established Reef To New Tank

EDIT: In conclusion, if using the method I did - connecting an established reef to a new system with dry rock (clean), I recommend the following: 1. Dose your new tank prior to connecting to your old tank with NO3 and PO4 enough to raise to your established tank levels. 2. Take your skimmer...

www.reef2reef.com

this is great thank you!

 

[Coral Bros]

hahah thank you guys. trust me. I loved it in the beginning. was giving it out for free to local reefers. and i loved how i got a grafted effect on the rocks. I decided to let them spawn and grow wild but that was a big mistake. first, i lost a lot of rock real estate. and i have some high end sps acros (homewrecker, angry birds, etc). these spawns completely destroyed my walt disney colony and other high end stuff. and that was the last straw for me. and it is not easy to cut the base as they grow densely in crevices in ball-like structure. its not easy to frag too. And i tried to prevent them from evading my other sps colonies; I've tried cutting as much and epoxying over them, but they continue to grow and pop up everywhere- evading my other corals. It literally is like aiptasia/xenia. so for me, never again will i put pollicipora in my tanks, and i always warn fellow reefers and stores about this when i give it to them for free, but they dont seem to care about it.
cheers

 

[brandon429]

we need to be recommending it as folks first sps then at least for nano reef starts

they'll feel on top of the world it grows so well and at that rate of growth/adapt its very forgiving and disease resistant. reefcentral had plenty of invasive poci posts back in the day have seen it.