Can I add dry live rock and live sand to a 2 year old tank?

[Westside Guy]

My tank is about 2 years old and after many monthly water changes along with siphoning the sand level is getting really low. I was considering add some Carib Sea Agag-Alive “special grade’ sand to the tank.

In addition I was thinking of making a change to my aquascaping and adding either Carib Sea‘s live rock or their dry live rock.

Will I run into any issues doing either of the above?

 

[Paul B]

No, you can add all the sand you want. But I don't think there is any need to do monthly water changes. Half of that would be totally enough. I do about a quarter of that

 

[brandon429]

for the sand, pre rinse it in tap water until its totally clean, spotless no cloud, then final rinse in RO

then you can add the sand.

adding the new rocks wont hurt they're inert and not subtracting from any valued surface area. the sand is massively cloudy if you don't pre rinse it, for sure you'll want that pre rinse or you risk the ten threads we have on file where they clouded the tank for two weeks and all the corals stayed extremely mad and the whole tank looked terrible.

 

[KrisReef]

^What they said^

If you are getting a shipment of fresh living rock from the ocean you might need to evaluate the health of the critters living (or dead now?) on the rock and make sure that you don't add a huge load of dead and dying critters and plants if you do get real live rock. If its fresh, quick rinse and add is fantastic.

 

[Westside Guy]

As mentioned I am considering Carib Sea’s rock.

 

[ApoIsland]

To me “dry” live rock sounds like it was recently real wet live rock and is being shipped dry. Am I understanding that correctly? If so it will have a bunch of dead decaying organisms . I would circulate that rock for a few days in a separate container of salt water before adding to the tank. I would probably even change all the water in that separate holding tank after a couple days.

 

[Westside Guy]

To me “dry” live rock sounds like it was recently real wet live rock and is being shipped dry. Am I understanding that correctly? If so it will have a bunch of dead decaying organisms . I would circulate that rock for a few days in a separate container of salt water before adding to the tank. I would probably even change all the water in that separate holding tank after a couple days.

This is the rock I am considering.

Marine Substrates - CaribSea

ARAG-ALIVE!™ ARAGONITE CORALINE™ OCEAN DIRECT™ AQUACULTURE GRAVEL ARAG-ALIVE!™You can now bring the world’s most exotic reefs into your home with CaribSea’s Arag-Alive!™ substrates. Eight environmentally accurate ecoscapes, developed through CaribSea’s cooperation with public aquariums and...

caribsea.com

 

[ApoIsland]

This is the rock I am considering.

Marine Substrates - CaribSea

ARAG-ALIVE!™ ARAGONITE CORALINE™ OCEAN DIRECT™ AQUACULTURE GRAVEL ARAG-ALIVE!™You can now bring the world’s most exotic reefs into your home with CaribSea’s Arag-Alive!™ substrates. Eight environmentally accurate ecoscapes, developed through CaribSea’s cooperation with public aquariums and...

caribsea.com

"infused with living spored bacteria". Sounds pretty cool. I would still circulate it in a separate bucket of salt water for a few days just in case some things have died. Point a power head at the top for oxygen to keep the living bacteria alive.

 

[TN_Huskymama]

I have done this before with no issues. I rinsed the LIFE rock with clean water before adding. Not sure if I was correct in doing this? But no issues none-the-less

 

[KrisReef]

As mentioned I am considering Carib Sea’s rock.

Oops, my bad. A quick rinse for dust removal should be all you need.

 

[Hermie]

There's no such thing as "dry live rock"

because if it's dry, it's not live.

Arag alive and all that are not true "live rock" or "live sand"

You can definitely add any or all of that to your system. Live, dry, none of it will crash your system.

 

[jarviz]

what the heck is dry live rock lol. the product sounds like regular dry rock, and then dipped in those "nitryifying" bacteria bottles. Don't know how legit it really is but sounds like it's just marketing... i would love to know how well it works tho.

 

[Rmckoy]

Not to hijack the op’s thread.
Of adding new sand on top of existing established sand ,

will it trap detritus or any other nasty below the surface causing issues later ?

 

[Hermie]

what the heck is dry live rock lol. the product sounds like regular dry rock, and then dipped in those "nitryifying" bacteria bottles. Don't know how legit it really is but sounds like it's just marketing... i would love to know how well it works tho.

supposed to help prevent nuisance algae

 

[Rmckoy]

supposed to help prevent nuisance algae

I always thought if it was dry , it wasn’t live or had anything living on it .

 

[Hermie]

I always thought if it was dry , it wasn’t live or had anything living on it .

I believe it's bacterial spores which can survive in the dry environment

 

[Rmckoy]

I believe it's bacterial spores which can survive in the dry environment

I don’t know if I would buy into what sounds almost too good to be true .

so by using this dry live rock there is no cycle ,
Add rocks , livestock and ready to go ?

 

[Hermie]

I don’t know if I would buy into what sounds almost too good to be true .

so by using this dry live rock there is no cycle ,
Add rocks , livestock and ready to go ?

no, it simply speeds up the cycle, not "negates" it.

The basic question comes down to this,

Do you like the look of carib sea life rock versus the white dry rock?
In my opinion, the life rock looks better but it also kind of masks nuisance algae which can help you gauge the stage of "maturity" of the rocks. I wouldn't mind starting a tank with it if I had the money.

Secondly, do you want a faster cycle? It may be a week faster to cycle... as a guess. Well, if I am housing fish or inverts I would want a faster cycle. However, I believe corals can be introduced to a tank that's not completed cycling. The ammonia does not harm them the same that it does a fish or snail.

So, it's not some exorbanent claim they are making, like "no cycle" which is your words.