Switching live rock in established reef

[TorchReef736]

Background:

I started with a 12 gallon long and 13 lbs of BRS Marco Rock seeded with Microbacter Start XLM on September 12.

All is stable and running well, but I committed one of the sins of aquascaping: a centerpiece rock formation that is too wide for the tank and blocks flow, makes it basically impossible to clean the glass in some places, and isn’t good for coral placement.

I picked up 10 lbs of established real reef Tonga branch on the 16th from a lfs. It was only in wet towels for about 2 hours on the way home and since has been in a 5 gallon bucket with heater and power head.

The plan ? :

Remove the large center formation, move the other two formations to the sump, and aquascape with the 10 lbs of real reef branch. The sand bed is somewhat regularly siphoned and I run nearly nitrate and phosphate free. How should I handle this change in a way that least upsets the system and protects the corals and other livestock (clown pair, royal gramma, Pom Pom crab)?

 

[brandon429]

This will be an easy job.

cure out the new rocks until you know theyre not leaking ammonia from dieoff, there’s hardly any chance they were harmed in a wet transport a few hours.
when they smell normal in reef water, arent producing continual ammonia, simply swap them out all at once for your final design. Their bacteria is equal in power or better than the current rocks, assuming the new ones of that type has higher surface area.