Cycling a once Fish Only for Reef Keeping

[swimmingswammi]

I purchased a 90g with two canister filters and am adding an HOB skimmer and HOB Refugium. However, the rock in the tank included some fake coral (colored pieces), some coral skeleton/reef rock (that did not smell when some of it dried), and some stuff I am not sure which category to place in.

Nevertheless, I want to transition the tank into a reef tank with fish and corals. Some have cautioned me regarding some leeching the fake coral may do but the fish have been in the tank with the rock for years reportedly.

So I have the rock in the tank and am dosing Liquid Calcium everyday as prescribed. There are a few fish in the tank and I will be introducing some live rock to seed the tank.

Any other advice out there?

Thanks

 

[Zombie]

Do you know if copper was used with the old rock in the FOWLR?

 

[skinz78]

I would trash the old rock and start over, I wouldn't chance it and dry rock is so cheap.

 

[LegoZ81]

yeah with a used tank you have to be careful, was copper dosed into the tank? I would personally sell off the rock/substrate and filters to someone wanting to run a fish only tank. I would soak the tank with ro/di with a cover and then test for copper with a test kit. It will be pretty hard to tell if copper at a high enough concentration is leaching due to the low tolerances most inverts have to copper but this will be better than nothing. You can also run cuprisorb or some other copper absorbing media in the tank to help remove any copper that might leach out.

If the water tests positive for copper you are best off using the tank for fish only and buying a new tank for your reef.