Setting up a new tank w/ "used" dry rock - Seeking advise

[Hex_Reefer]

Hey all,

I am setting up a new tank (112g Innovative Marine lagoon - used and running just prior to my purchase 2 weeks ago, no live stock included, just tank/sump/return pump/skimmer). Much of the rock I will be using is very old dry rock that I had in a previous tank that was removed and set aside over 10 years ago. The rock sat around in an old plastic bin in my back yard for years. The bin sorta fell apart in the AZ heat which introduced a lot of bugs into the rock. To start the cleaning process on the rocks, I soaked them in water I collected from water changes from my other 30g tank. I then scrubbed the rocks down with a nylon brush and aggressively swished the rocks around in the water to remove as much filth as possible. (All of this rock is real ocean rock from back in the day when you didn't need a lean on your house to afford it)

End goal of cycle/cook process:
-Get this rock cooked/cycled as efficiently as possible
-Add live rock from another tank at some point (I am moving 5 fish and some live rock from a 30g tank that's been operating for many years)
-Add a medium depth live-sand bed (sand is a mix of new live sand and dry sand for cost purposes - mostly live sand)


The plan:
-cook/cycle dry rock in the main tank
-process will happen on a bare bottom for easy clean up of die-off and to keep the live-sand bed clean - rock
-add bacteria to aid process
-weekly water changes (~25%)
-Wait until ammonia drops to 0
-Remove rock (keeping rock wet in a bin during process)
-Add sand bed/place rock/aqua-scape/add live rock from old tank (all in one step)
-Wait for any cycling to finish after addition of live sand and old live rock

Current status:
-Bare bottom w/ corrugated plastic sheets to protect glass bottom
-Saltwater/rock added 5 days ago (Mix of RO and RODI water per what I could obtain, there's some phosphates going in to start. RODI system coming soon)
-3 power heads running
-Lights off
-sump/return not running because I lost the return pump power-pack (replacement in mail)
-Recommended dose (for new tanks) of aquavitro "seed" added today (bacteria)

Questions:
-Should I continue to add bacteria during this cooking/cycling process per the instructions?
-Am I actually cooking/cycling at the same time, or just cooking?
-If I continue to add bacteria, should I feed that bacteria with some fish food every few days?
-Should I add in a damsel fish to aid in ammonia production at some point? If so, when?
-Per my plan, should I continue to wait until ammonia drops to 0 to add the new live sand and live rock from the other tank? Or, should I just do this asap?

The reason for the post is to lean on the collective experience of this group to complete this setup process as efficiently as possible, with as few screw-ups as possible.


Please feel free to ask any an all questions to obtain any info I may have left out. Thanks in advance for any advise.

 

[Saltyreef]

Did you bleach soak the rocks to kill any non marine life that happened to get inside?

 

[Hex_Reefer]

Did you bleach soak the rocks to kill any non marine life that happened to get inside?

No, they were soaked in saltwater for a week and then cleaned with nylon brushes.

 

[Saltyreef]

No, they were soaked in saltwater for a week and then cleaned with nylon brushes.

You may be looking at lots of issues with nitrates down the road if these were established, then dried out and uncleaned before putting in water again.

Hopefully not just something to look for down the road.

Also,
You can leave the rocks in place and fill in the sand around it. This keeps the rock firmly planted against the solid glass and resists landslides thats common in stacked aquascapes that are on top of the sand bed.

Add some burrowing critters and you got yourself a recipie for settling.

 

[Hex_Reefer]

Did you bleach soak the rocks to kill any non marine life that happened to get inside?

No, they were soaked in saltwater for a week and then cleaned with nylon brushes

You may be looking at lots of issues with nitrates down the road if these were established, then dried out and uncleaned before putting in water again.

Hopefully not just something to look for down the road.

Also,
You can leave the rocks in place and fill in the sand around it. This keeps the rock firmly planted against the solid glass and resists landslides thats common in stacked aquascapes that are on top of the sand bed.

And some burrowing critters and you got yourself a recipie for settling.

I plan to let these rocks cook/cycle in the tank for at least 2 months, very likely longer.

I cannot simply leave the rocks in place when I add the sand in as the rocks are sitting on top of corrugated plastic board to protect the glass. everything has to come out. the base rocks will however be pressed fairly firmly into the sand to Anchor them as you have mentioned. I always do this to keep Rock slides from happening which is never been an issue so far, thankfully.

 

[Dan_P]

Hey all,

I am setting up a new tank (112g Innovative Marine lagoon - used and running just prior to my purchase 2 weeks ago, no live stock included, just tank/sump/return pump/skimmer). Much of the rock I will be using is very old dry rock that I had in a previous tank that was removed and set aside over 10 years ago. The rock sat around in an old plastic bin in my back yard for years. The bin sorta fell apart in the AZ heat which introduced a lot of bugs into the rock. To start the cleaning process on the rocks, I soaked them in water I collected from water changes from my other 30g tank. I then scrubbed the rocks down with a nylon brush and aggressively swished the rocks around in the water to remove as much filth as possible. (All of this rock is real ocean rock from back in the day when you didn't need a lean on your house to afford it)

End goal of cycle/cook process:
-Get this rock cooked/cycled as efficiently as possible
-Add live rock from another tank at some point (I am moving 5 fish and some live rock from a 30g tank that's been operating for many years)
-Add a medium depth live-sand bed (sand is a mix of new live sand and dry sand for cost purposes - mostly live sand)


The plan:
-cook/cycle dry rock in the main tank
-process will happen on a bare bottom for easy clean up of die-off and to keep the live-sand bed clean - rock
-add bacteria to aid process
-weekly water changes (~25%)
-Wait until ammonia drops to 0
-Remove rock (keeping rock wet in a bin during process)
-Add sand bed/place rock/aqua-scape/add live rock from old tank (all in one step)
-Wait for any cycling to finish after addition of live sand and old live rock

Current status:
-Bare bottom w/ corrugated plastic sheets to protect glass bottom
-Saltwater/rock added 5 days ago (Mix of RO and RODI water per what I could obtain, there's some phosphates going in to start. RODI system coming soon)
-3 power heads running
-Lights off
-sump/return not running because I lost the return pump power-pack (replacement in mail)
-Recommended dose (for new tanks) of aquavitro "seed" added today (bacteria)

Questions:
-Should I continue to add bacteria during this cooking/cycling process per the instructions?
-Am I actually cooking/cycling at the same time, or just cooking?
-If I continue to add bacteria, should I feed that bacteria with some fish food every few days?
-Should I add in a damsel fish to aid in ammonia production at some point? If so, when?
-Per my plan, should I continue to wait until ammonia drops to 0 to add the new live sand and live rock from the other tank? Or, should I just do this asap?

The reason for the post is to lean on the collective experience of this group to complete this setup process as efficiently as possible, with as few screw-ups as possible.


Please feel free to ask any an all questions to obtain any info I may have left out. Thanks in advance for any advise.

Most people would dispose of the old rock. Why keep it?

 

[Hex_Reefer]

Most people would dispose of the old rock. Why keep it?

It's nice rock. Rock is also expensive.

 

[Dan_P]

It's nice rock. Rock is also expensive.

Best thing to do is to soak the rock in muriatic acid to dissolve away the surface which has likely adsorbed all sorts of things over ten years sitting outside.

 

[Hex_Reefer]

Best thing to do is to soak the rock in muriatic acid to dissolve away the surface which has likely adsorbed all sorts of things over ten years sitting outside.

Thought about this, but decided against it as the rock is a bit soft. Not horrible, but didn't want to further degrade it.

I'm not worried about what it absorbed being outside so much as what it absorbed while in the tank I had it in years ago. Bugs and junk that weren't removed during cleaning will degrade easy enough from the crevices during cooking.

 

[Hex_Reefer]

But, only time will tell. I'll be cooking these rocks until Ammonia/nitrate are at 0 for a week.

 

[SpyC]

Most people would dispose of the old rock. Why keep it?

Why would you get rid of old rock? I have a bunch of old fiji and pukani rick from 2010.

 

[bushdoc]

I second keeping old rock, it is probably much more porous than Marco Rock or any available dry rock.
My suggestion would be “cooking it” by whatever method you choose in a rubbermaid container. This way it is easier to do water changes, cleaning, removing decaying matter and then moving it to DT and seeding it with bacteria. You could check for phosphates being leached from rock and if it happens use Lanthanum chloride to bind it. It is much easier and safer to do it in separate container than DT.
BTW, I would use bleach to “ cook“ it.

 

[Saltyreef]

Thought about this, but decided against it as the rock is a bit soft. Not horrible, but didn't want to further degrade it.

I'm not worried about what it absorbed being outside so much as what it absorbed while in the tank I had it in years ago. Bugs and junk that weren't removed during cleaning will degrade easy enough from the crevices during cooking.

Lets hope its all good!

 

[Dan_P]

Thought about this, but decided against it as the rock is a bit soft. Not horrible, but didn't want to further degrade it.

I'm not worried about what it absorbed being outside so much as what it absorbed while in the tank I had it in years ago. Bugs and junk that weren't removed during cleaning will degrade easy enough from the crevices during cooking.

By soft do you mean the rock is crumbling easily?

 

[Hex_Reefer]

I second keeping old rock, it is probably much more porous than Marco Rock or any available dry rock.
My suggestion would be “cooking it” by whatever method you choose in a rubbermaid container. This way it is easier to do water changes, cleaning, removing decaying matter and then moving it to DT and seeding it with bacteria. You could check for phosphates being leached from rock and if it happens use Lanthanum chloride to bind it. It is much easier and safer to do it in separate container than DT.
BTW, I would use bleach to “ cook“ it.

"Cooking" is already taking place in the bare bottom tank for ease of cleanup. Water changes are simple enough as-is.

I am wondering if skimming during this process would be beneficial or not however...

 

[Hex_Reefer]

By soft do you mean the rock is crumbling easily?

Some of the outer edges, yes.

 

[bushdoc]

I would test for phosphates and Nitrates to see if you have lots of organics on the rock. I guess your aim is to “ clean” the rock from organic matter and seed with new bacteria. If there’s lots of organic matter, than adding skimmer might help, although at this stage I would mostly rely on water changes to remove nutrients.

 

[bakbay]

Some of the outer edges, yes.

Understand that rocks are expensive but if they're fragile or in the midst of disintegration, then I don't think you should re-use them. Also, as others have mentioned, I would be very worried about future nitrate & phosphate challenges if you don't "cook" them properly. I've been successful re-using old rocks (still have 200+ lbs of them from old tanks) by just bleaching & sun-drying them.

Good luck & happy reefing!

 

[Hex_Reefer]

I would test for phosphates and Nitrates to see if you have lots of organics on the rock. I guess your aim is to “ clean” the rock from organic matter and seed with new bacteria. If there’s lots of organic matter, than adding skimmer might help, although at this stage I would mostly rely on water changes to remove nutrients.

Weekly water changes will be done, of course and phosphate testing is on the list of weekly tasks on the checklist. A bottle of Turbostart has been added as well.

 

[Hex_Reefer]

Understand that rocks are expensive but if they're fragile or in the midst of disintegration, then I don't think you should re-use them. Also, as others have mentioned, I would be very worried about future nitrate & phosphate challenges if you don't "cook" them properly. I've been successful re-using old rocks (still have 200+ lbs of them from old tanks) by just bleaching & sun-drying them.

Good luck & happy reefing!

They're not falling apart by any means. If they were, I would have gone another direction.

I guess we'll see how long it takes for the rocks to cook. If it seems like it's not going well, I'll remove and dry them, then bleach and start over. Only time will tell.