got ethical husbandry?

Installing New Rock

Tumbleweed

Tumbleweed

Guest
BARcard
Thanks to Boun and Ian have have some new Marco Rock for my tank. I have cleaned off the rock with Muriatic acid, and rinsed and is now sitting in a Rubbermaid tub with salt water from my tank mixing with an old pump and a couple of small pieces of rock from my DT. My question now is to find the best way to seed it and put it in my tank. I will be replacing all of the rock that is currently in my tank with this rock. The best way would be to connect this tub with my current system to allow the beneficial bacteria to seed this rock. This unfortunately is not possible. A couple of other options I was thinking are:
1. Let the rock mix with old water change water for 4-6 weeks.
2. Use one of those beneficial bacteria starter bottles.
3. Swap out half of the old rock for the new rock and let that mix for a couple of weeks and then swap out the rest.
4. Put all of the new rock in put some of the old rock in the Refugium and watch the water changes.

What do you all think?
 
I say combination of 1,2,3. Toss it all in the old water and toss in some starter. A day or two later swap out half the rocks (old ones don't go into the same container as the new one if you're trying to avoid algae issues etc). Let sit for week or so w/ a water change maybe to let things stabilize, then swap the rest.
 
There was no need to wash it in Muratic acid, Marco does that for you :)
 
Sorry :bigsmile: let me rephrase. I got some used Marco Rock from Boun and Ian.

And accourding to their website "Marcos Rocks" He suggests running in a container with a lot of flow and skimmer and also use Fritz (turbo start 900) to help cycle the rock. Then to just wait untill the Amonia Nitrite and Nitrate levels go to 0
 
That was for his non Key Largo, but even that needs to be updated ;)

Since there is no organics in Key Largo there will be no ammonia, nitrate or nitrite ;) Nor will there be in yours since you went the acid route :)
 
How much are you replacing? If not much, just put it in your tank.
 
Rinse off the dust well, maybe soak it in WC water over night and then add to the tank. Thats about all I'd do (and what I will do :p...I got 50lbs of the rock at BAYMAC)
 
Since you want to replace all the rock in your tank with your newly acquired Marco Rock, I would just stage the replacement over the course of two months by replacing some fraction (25%) of your current rock every other week.

That will give time for the new rock to settle in some more, while keeping your existing rock around to help with the filtration.

You can keep the remaining rock mixing with tank water and seed rock in the holding tank while staging the exchange.

Just keep an eye on your tank, and slow down this process if you see anything wonky happening.

The downside to this process is that it takes a while, any unwanted pests in the existing rocks will move over to the new rock, you won't be able to fully aquascape for a month or two, and the DT may not be so pretty to look at in the meantime.

I do recall reading something from Marco or another vendor of Florida dry rock that you should avoid putting more than a certain amount of dry rock (relative to your established rock) into your existing tank at one time.
 
Gresh I am taking out all of the old rock about 90-100lbs. and putting in all new rock about 65-75lbs dry.
I really don't want to do it in stages for the exact reason as I don't want the pests on the old rock to get onto the new rock.
 
Thanks Eileen. I hope so. I tried connecting some pieces together yesterday withthe hydraulic cement and it didn't go to well. I am going to try again today. If it all gies well I think I will try puttng it in the tank this Sunday. I am going to try prodibio and hope that helps keep the cycle down. I will just have to keep an eye on it and see what happens.
 
Jess you are more then welcome to come out. I by no means have any real expierence with this it is all trial and error. I have the basic design layout done but changes might get made last minute.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top