I am in the middle of tearing down my 250 display. Got those vermited snails a long time ago and just wanted to change up the aqua scape and some other things. I took out the rock that I wanted to use to make the new scape and acid washed it and then bleached it. Let it dry outside for a few days and washed it off a few times. I built the new aqua scape and have been curing in saltwater at 80 degrees and a lot of flow in the dark for one week now. Do I need to change the water at any point? How long should I let this process go before I place the new scape back in the tank and start the cycle? The tank will be drained and I plan on running bleach water in the system for a week to kill anything in the plumbing. Sump is in the basement. I am at least 4 weeks away from having the tank ready since I am moving the corals and fish in a holding tank slowly. I planned on keeping the rock cure at least that long since it wont help sitting dry on a shelf.
Rock Curing Questions
- Thread starter Carz
- Start date
also this matters: you are absolutely required to run a dual aquarium system from here on out, if you don't, this whole effort was for nothing
tank one is your display, starting back as 100% sterile across the biome/having only ammonia-controlling bacteria at the start after you select your upcycle method. you can't add anything to this aquarium, anything, that doesn't pass through 45 day fallow and given this amount of time and $ you just enacted I wouldn't be using a 45 day fallow I'd use 90 day fallow observation from 2016 technique, as shortcuts aren't welcomed.
tank two is your functioning receiving tank. added in groups vs 1 at a time, new additions destined for your display get fallowed here for 90 days/45 if you want shortcuts. it takes longer than a month for verms to show up as hitchhikers, I recommend 90 day observations and even then a leak-through is highly likely. verm juveniles are found microscopically on everything wet you'll ever add to the reef tank.
after every group is graduated from your receiving tank it needs to be dried, sterilized then started over to receive newly vectored groups of additions destined for the display. you can't not sterilize it, and just add in a new group, that's losing crucial vector control. You started this process in the name of vector control but will leak it back in nineteen ways unless you run a dual tank setup with a startover receiving tank for each group of materials that go back among the rocks you are upcycling.
to add one single item into this tank that is wet, and hasn't passed through legit fallow assessment, is to instantly undermine the entire effort. you can't source materials for a reef tank that are free of vermitids and juveniles.
getting the ammonia control is the easy part, no thought no testing required/dump in bottle bac add twenty drops of ammonia wait ten days and you're able to carry fish among those rocks.
all the planning and mistake-prone details exist in your biosecurity approach now, per Jay's article
what required this response was the sterilization of your current rock. if it was just rearrange/remove and add some new rocks of different shapes none of this would be required. but to sterilize means you're trying to alter vectoring in the new tank, and it can only be done this way since all sourced materials in reefing have vermitid juveniles attached microscopically. they also have algae, aiptasia, dinos cells, cyano, all the things that constitute reef tank invasions. fallow screening is the only way to win given this much effort you're doing
tank one is your display, starting back as 100% sterile across the biome/having only ammonia-controlling bacteria at the start after you select your upcycle method. you can't add anything to this aquarium, anything, that doesn't pass through 45 day fallow and given this amount of time and $ you just enacted I wouldn't be using a 45 day fallow I'd use 90 day fallow observation from 2016 technique, as shortcuts aren't welcomed.
tank two is your functioning receiving tank. added in groups vs 1 at a time, new additions destined for your display get fallowed here for 90 days/45 if you want shortcuts. it takes longer than a month for verms to show up as hitchhikers, I recommend 90 day observations and even then a leak-through is highly likely. verm juveniles are found microscopically on everything wet you'll ever add to the reef tank.
after every group is graduated from your receiving tank it needs to be dried, sterilized then started over to receive newly vectored groups of additions destined for the display. you can't not sterilize it, and just add in a new group, that's losing crucial vector control. You started this process in the name of vector control but will leak it back in nineteen ways unless you run a dual tank setup with a startover receiving tank for each group of materials that go back among the rocks you are upcycling.
to add one single item into this tank that is wet, and hasn't passed through legit fallow assessment, is to instantly undermine the entire effort. you can't source materials for a reef tank that are free of vermitids and juveniles.
getting the ammonia control is the easy part, no thought no testing required/dump in bottle bac add twenty drops of ammonia wait ten days and you're able to carry fish among those rocks.
all the planning and mistake-prone details exist in your biosecurity approach now, per Jay's article
what required this response was the sterilization of your current rock. if it was just rearrange/remove and add some new rocks of different shapes none of this would be required. but to sterilize means you're trying to alter vectoring in the new tank, and it can only be done this way since all sourced materials in reefing have vermitid juveniles attached microscopically. they also have algae, aiptasia, dinos cells, cyano, all the things that constitute reef tank invasions. fallow screening is the only way to win given this much effort you're doing
Last edited:
Once the 250 is bleached and cleaned, My plan is to set up the new aqua scape and seed the system with bacteria. I am doing a bare bottom this time so I plan on letting the tank cycle for a few months in the dark and then add my tangs from the holding tank.
I guarantee you that if you add any common brand of cycling bacteria, cycling vs cleaning bacteria, and two ground up pinches of flake food and wait 15 days you will be cycled for any set of rocks that stewed in such a mix. always. it won't fail on that timeframe, notice I didnt mention ammonia addition nor testing/key for a reason. you can make the cycle/ammonia control absolutely predictable using fish food, cycling bac and 15 days wait it's always going to be cycled by that time and you won't need a giant water change to export a bunch of nitrate either. 2ppm ammonia cycling is old, dated, and has many downsides compared to timed wait + testless cycling.
Similar threads
