Seeding old live rock...

[Colonel Pyle]

I recently moved my 75gal FOWLR tank from one house to another. What a pain in the ass :roll: This tank is almost 3.5 years mature, its inhabitants include a purple tang, flame angel, dottyback, and a medium size maroon clownfish. I currently have the tang and flame angel together in a 29 gal tank with 2 good size pieces of live rock that came out of the 75 gal tank. The 29 has a glass bottom, no sand. The clownfish and dottyback are being housed in a 10 gal tank with a huge piece of live rock and a bare bottom tank. The 75 gal tank had about 80lbs of live rock and a 3" deep sand bed. When I tore down the 75, I threw away all the sand in the tank, and placed the live rock in a huge Rubbermaid tub. Unfortunately, the live rock was not stored in water and dried out. I mixed up some new saltwater and cleaned off all the dried up rock and rinsed it well in the saltwater. I bought new Southdown sand and placed a 2" deep sand bed in the 75 along with all the old live rock. Damn, what a long post 8O My question is....the remaining pieces of live rock that are sustaining my fish in the smaller tanks, can they be transfered to the newly set up 75 gallon tank and seed the tank with enough good bacteria to keep all 4 fish alive in the new tank? The new tank has been up and running for almost a week now, the tank is crystal clear. I really dont want to keep the fish in their smaller environments any longer.

Thanks for the suggestions...
Pyle

 

[Anonymous]

Ok, first off, where'd you get the southdown?

As to your question though... - Yeah, I'd give it a try, but I'd also keep some replacement water on hand to do a water change with if needed.

Feed lightly, skim heavily and monitor the levels.

1/2 the rock in my 72 came from buckets that were stored in an outdoor U-Haul storage garage for a year.

 

[Colonel Pyle]

I went to my local Home Depot here in Clearwater and asked them if they carried Southdown sand. They said no. The guy that was helping me checked Home Depots master list and said that the stores in the Northeast United States carried Southdown. I asked him if he could order it for me from one of those stores, I told him I was building a huge sandbox for my kid and that she was allergic to silica based sand. He ordered it for me, I received 8 50lb bags for $56. Find your local Home Depot and press the issue, they can get it for you.
Pyle