Would you do it?

[Johnny bass07]

I have a 265 gallon with a 55 gallon sump that has 300lbs of dry rock that has been established for a year. I can't grow much of anything but zoanthids. There is just no life in the rock. I have 4 tangs a clown 4 chromes and 2 royal grammas. I want to take 75lbs of the dry rock out and put in 75lbs of gulf rock. Would it hurt to put the gulf rock straight in without curing it? Would the die off hurt it being its been established for a year? Would you do it?

 

[elorablue]

I have a 265 gallon with a 55 gallon sump that has 300lbs of dry rock that has been established for a year. I can't grow much of anything but zoanthids. There is just no life in the rock. I have 4 tangs a clown 4 chromes and 2 royal grammas. I want to take 75lbs of the dry rock out and put in 75lbs of gulf rock. Would it hurt to put the gulf rock straight in without curing it? Would the die off hurt it being its been established for a year? Would you do it?

Could you take a picture of your rock?
I'd be surprised if it was lifeless after a year

 

[Johnny bass07]

Them are dead frags. I've had many tanks and never had the problems with sps like this one. Parameters have been stable since cycle. When I say dead I mean looking at it with a flash light at night all I see are thousands of baby snails and that's it

 

[Johnny bass07]

I have coralline on the bottom and corner overflows but not much on the rock

 

[elorablue]

Nice tank but wow that's a lot of rock. It's hard to tell with a blue pic but is there any algae at all on it? It does look strangely "lifeless".
Ever dosed phyto or copepods? When did you start adding coral?

edit: oh I just noticed it's bare bottom too.

 

[happyhourhero]

The gulf rock will stink. I did this in my nano and mini cured the rock in another tub and added a piece or so per day to my tank and watched ammonia. Took me a week to get 17 pounds into my 25 gallon. It’s great rock.

 

[happyhourhero]

You could also order from ipsf for some diversity.

 

[X-37B]

I went 50/50 live/dead on my 120 and am pretty happy.
If I was in your situation I would put the 75lbs of new live rock in a brute trash can with strong flow and monitor parameters. Once you have 0 ammonia and nitrite you should be good to go.
No need for any light as it should only be a week or so.
I would also dose some mb7.

 

[Yazannreef]

You said parameters on check! Please post up your # including po4 and no3. There is got to be something that needs tweaking

 

[Johnny bass07]

Po4 0.03
No3 0
Cal. 450
Mag 1350
Salinity 1.026
Temp 78
Alkalinity 8.0

 

[Johnny bass07]

See if that helps

 

[Yazannreef]

Everything looks good but the nitrates no3. I have similar issue with the nitrate bottoming out 0 and started dosing brightwell neonitro. Just tested today after dosing 20ml in two days and I see that I got 0.2 readings.

 

[Yazannreef]

I believe strongly that you need nitrates in your system 5ppm for your colors to feed and color up and grow. It's tested and proven so it doesn't hurt to give it a try

 

[Johnny bass07]

I have never had any algae besides the glass getting a haze every 4 days

 

[X-37B]

How many fish and how much do you feed?
I would feed more before dosing no3 or po4.

 

[Danroo]

Goddam that’s one beautiful tank.

 

[Johnny bass07]

I do run a skimmer and a refugium with cheato

 

[Johnny bass07]

I feel like I feed too much. Fish are fat

 

[Johnny bass07]

12 fish total

 

[Yazannreef]

How many fish and how much do you feed?
I would feed more before dosing no3 or po4.

Feeding more is a good idea but the results will not be as controlled as you would hope for them to be. I started feeding double the amount in my tank but didn't see any difference in nitrates. Was still 0. Just the fact that I now how to control nitrate level with proper dosage is worth the go.