Upgrading tank, when is it not safe to use establish rock from old tank?

[LMDAVE]

I saw a recent article from Reef Builders addressing this, and basically the conclusion was to just go all new clean rock and start fresh. I have a 40 gal established tank, and upgrading to 112 gallon. The only real issue with my existing rock is a huge amount vermetid snails. I hardly ever see them active with mucus strings, but the small 1/4" long x 1/16" diameter tubes are all over now.

Could I have select a handful of rocks and scrape off all the visual vermetid snails? Or is it not worth the risk? I wanted to at least put some of the rock in my new refugium to maybe help seed the tank.

I bought about 90 lbs of new Marco reef saver rock thats on its' way. I'm still a month or 2 away from having the new tank ready to get wet, but wondering if I should plan to say goodbye to my established rock.

 

[McFly]

I think there are different types of vermetid snails, the ones with the mucus web need to be eliminated. The other kinds are normally harmless.

In the above picture, I have 1, 4 and 5 all over my tank without issue. I used to have two #3 on my clam, but I eventually tired of the mucus web irritating my SPS so I glued it shut.

What kind do you have in your tank?

Cheers!

 

[jda]

"Cook" the old rock and reuse it. Cooking is does not involve an oven, but putting the rock in a dark container with seawater - you can google how to do this. It will take 4-6 months for it to clean out, but this is faster than the 2 years that it might take the dry rock to get to where it is useful.

You can chisel/scrape the verms that you can see off and then the cook will get the rest.

 

[LMDAVE]

I think there are different types of vermetid snails, the ones with the mucus web need to be eliminated. The other kinds are normally harmless.

In the above picture, I have 1, 4 and 5 all over my tank without issue. I used to have two #3 on my clam, but I eventually tired of the mucus web irritating my SPS so I glued it shut.

What kind do you have in your tank?

Cheers!

I guess mine are basically #5 all over, the only real times I see mucus strings like #3 is when I blow all my rocks with a turkey baster making nutrients in the water column, and even then I may only see about 5 mucus strings come out, where there is probably a 100 shells over the entire tank. I don't know if that means the other shells are abandoned?

 

[LMDAVE]

"Cook" the old rock and reuse it. Cooking is does not involve an oven, but putting the rock in a dark container with seawater - you can google how to do this. It will take 4-6 months for it to clean out, but this is faster than the 2 years that it might take the dry rock to get to where it is useful.

You can chisel/scrape the verms that you can see off and then the cook will get the rest.

Hmm...that's a pretty long process. I wasn't going to take the old tank down until the new one was ready. I could probably take a percentage (30% maybe) rocks out my existing tank and the tank can get by with what was remaining and try a similar process to those rocks I took out.

 

[sde1500]

If you don't have a problem with anything on the rocks in your current tank, then IMO it is a waste of time or money to do anything with them other than transfer them to the new tank.

 

[Potatohead]

The only real detriment is you could be moving pests over, which it sounds like you know already. It's possible curing the rock for months in a bin wouldn't even kill all the vermatids, I'm not sure on that. If it were me I would manually remove as many as possible when the rock is out of the water and transfer the rock to the new tank.

 

[LMDAVE]

This is a snap shot of some of my tank, probably not good for seeing the vermetids but they are there. Only really visible if up close. But would love to use this rock. Just don’t want them taking over in the new tank. Maybe just one at a time out the tank and clipping them off like you said.

 

[cancun]

Hi! Imo I would use as much of the old rock as possible. I just started a tank upgrade from a 80 gallon to a 200 gallon. I added more than half of my live rock. My old tank will be up and running until my water tests good, then I will meet very the rest of the live rock with the livestock. I bought another 80lbs of live rock from my LFS which is in there now as well.

 

[Beefyreefy]

Honestly, you ended up with them in this tank... Even if you start over with dry rock, there is a good chance you will get them again anyway.

 

[LMDAVE]

Hi! Imo I would use as much of the old rock as possible. I just started a tank upgrade from a 80 gallon to a 200 gallon. I added more than half of my live rock. My old tank will be up and running until my water tests good, then I will meet very the rest of the live rock with the livestock. I bought another 80lbs of live rock from my LFS which is in there now as well.

I'll probably end up with this approach also.

 

[LMDAVE]

Honestly, you ended up with them in this tank... Even if you start over with dry rock, there is a good chance you will get them again anyway.

You're probably right. Considering I remember only seeing a few in the beginning and did the superglue covering on those I saw and scraped off a few, then wasn't that diligent afterwards, and here I am now. So, there's a very good chance some will slip through again and repopulate.