Will bacteria survive if I crack rocks open?

[BaileysTank]

Hello, I’m trying to rescale my already cycled tank, I will be taking some of the rocks in there and checking them open.I will periodly be spraying tank water in these rocks, will the bacteria be Albee to survive all this? Thanks!

 

[gbroadbridge]

Hello, I’m trying to rescale my already cycled tank, I will be taking some of the rocks in there and checking them open.I will periodly be spraying tank water in these rocks, will the bacteria be Albee to survive all this? Thanks!

Yes, bacteria are everywhere and dont care as long as they stay wet and you are spraying salt water.

Chlorinated Tap water is not good as it will kill them.

 

[ZombieEngineer]

Yes. You will get some die off leading to a mini cycle, but as long as you keep them wet the bacteria will survive. The longer they are out of the water the larger the mini cycle will be.

 

[Reef.]

Hello, I’m trying to rescale my already cycled tank, I will be taking some of the rocks in there and checking them open.I will periodly be spraying tank water in these rocks, will the bacteria be Albee to survive all this? Thanks!

We all do this, just keep them wet, a bucket of tank water from when you do a water change will be ideal, just keep dipping the rocks in the tank water every few minutes to keep to a minimum any bacteria that may die.

 

[ReefLife_Guy]

Do you mean re-doing the aquascape? Did you cycle with sand in your tank? If so, you probably have plenty of surface area with bacteria on them to not worry much about it. Bacteria will likely survive if they are not exposed to extreme conditions outside of the tank for prolonged periods, and especially if you are keeping them moist by spraying saltwater from your tank on them. If you are worried after the fact, you can always add some more bacteria to the tank when you put the rocks back in there and/or test its ability to process ammonia by adding ammonia assuming your tank does not have livestock. If you already have livestock in the tank you can add more bacteria still, but just monitor ammonia levels for the next week or so after adding them back into the tank.