AnthonyAce

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LI
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I have a 90 gallon reef tank + 30 gal sump for about a year now and was slowly building up the system with shrooms, sea anonome, polyps, etc. However, i could not a resist a friend who was taking down a very established awesome tank and now overloaded my tank with his rock, shrooms, leathers, etc.

The problem is now there is to much of my old rock in the tank. Is it a problem if a replace half my old rock with his estabished rock?

I am worried i just did a stupid thing - is the tank now going to crash and re-cycle??

:Yikes:
 

masterswimmer

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You didn't state how many lbs of rock you added. Was the rock from his system dry, live and submerged until going into your tank, was there any die off? All essential answers in order to determine if you're going to experience a cycle.

swimmer
 

AnthonyAce

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LI
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Not exactly sure i would say I added over 40 lbs. All rocks, corals, were transported in clear tubs full of his tank water, kept warm. Once at my home they wee floated and/or dripped into my system. They were in my tank within 4 hours. Slainity was the same and both tanks tested within the same parameters.
 

KathyC

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If the rock & sand was kept submerged the entire time, you should have nothing to worry about.
Do you plan to take out about an equal amount of your old rock? If so, then the bio-filtration you are currently getting shouldn't change and all should be fine.

If you are still concerned, take an ammonia reading each day and if you see an increase, be ready to do a water change.

Welcome to MR & how about some pics? :)
 

masterswimmer

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If you leave your rock in there for awhile, the bio colonies on your rock will help with the cycle (if there is a small one) on your friends rock. Remember, the good bacteria can only colonize in quantities equal to the amount of 'food' available to them. So if you have less 'food' in your tank (by removing an equal amount of rock you put in) then you are essentially removing biological colonies that can help to process the waste, if any, from the new rock.

Hope that was clear :banghead:

Russ
 

AnthonyAce

Junior member
Location
LI
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Russ,

Thank you for the response but i am not sure i completely understand. Would you recommend i take out an equal amount of my existing rock and replace it with my friends rock?

I currently have way-way to much rock in there and would like to thin it down as soon as possible. So much that i actually loaded up my sump - i definetly need to unload some existing live rock.


Please let me know if i understood it correctly.
 

Killerdrgn

Advanced Reefer
Location
Park Ridge, NJ
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you could just sell the excess rock. or break down some of the smaller pieces and use them as frag rocks. Or if you're handy you could make a slow moving cryptic sump out of the rocks. will keep nitrates at 0.
 

masterswimmer

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Anthony, sorry my directions were a bit cryptic.

I would leave your rock in the tank until your friends rock has cycled. Make sure you test your parameters to see if the tank even cycles. It might not. If it does, having your rock in there will help to expedite the cycle because you've got established biological colonies on your rock that will help to process the ammonia then nitrites that your friends rock will produce (assuming it cycles).

Once the cycling is complete, then you can completely remove the rock you had in there, leaving just your friends rock.

Hope that was a bit clearer.

Russ
 

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