How long does "dead" rock take to liven up?

[rev138]

I know this is a controversial issue, but for good or ill, I've decided to go with about 15 pounds* of "dead" rock in my 20H, and seeded it with 1 pound of live rock and a few scoops of sand from an established tank.

 

My question is, what timeframe am I looking at for the "dead" rock to become "live"? Days? Weeks? Months?

 

Also, in this type of scenario, will I have a cycle? I don't think I would, since there's barely any organic material in there to start with. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Thanks.

 

(* This is dry weight, which I estimate should be about 2x heavier when saturated with water)

[Izzue]

Gonna depend...but if It were me and I only seeded with that little LR and sand...

I would make that water nasty as hell...basically kick a lot of ammonia...one whole dead shrimp from the freezer would be a good start...or intervals of dropping a lot of other food like flake etc.

 

Why you ask...you have little bacteria to seed that amount of dead rock...if you feed the tank and and bacteria has plenty to eat...you will in return have more to convert you bioload. This in only a suggestion...if your patient enough and you let it cycle then add bioload real slowly you will be ok...but this will take longer.

I would nasty it up to help the cycle.

0.02

 

Izzue

[rev138]

I have been dumping in the old wastewater from water changes on my other tank, and I put in a few tablespoons of DT's phyto. Do you think I should do more?

 

Should I pee in it?

[Dr.Fumanchu]

^^+1 on What Izzue said. What I did whenI started my 10g was about 10 pounds of base rock and about 6 of premium Pukani rock. I let it all cycle, it did take longer than most cycles, about 4weeks, I then added one small clown goby and let it go for another 4 weeks before adding anything else. I know that sounds like alot of time but you really have to let the bacteria establish itself in the rock. It has been about 5 months and I am starting to get good coralline and you really cant tell the base rock from the live as it is all live now.

[rev138]

Oh, patience I have. I waited 9 weeks for my BC14 to settle before adding any corals, and that was using 100% cured LR. I probably won't stock this tank for at least that long. I just wanted to get a gauge of how quickly the nitrifying bacteria propogates.

[coral_addict]

Oh, patience I have. I waited 9 weeks for my BC14 to settle before adding any corals, and that was using 100% cured LR. I probably won't stock this tank for at least that long. I just wanted to get a gauge of how quickly the nitrifying bacteria propogates.

 

I know that patience is the key to success in this game but like most people, that's one thing that I lacked. My first BC14 tank only took less than 2 weeks for the cycle to complete because I use LR, LS and that bacteria pouch they sell. My LFS said I could stock fish and everything else within 24-48hrs but I still waited two weeks. I now have 2 fish and lots of corals and everything is very healthy and happy for close to 3months now. I love my BC14 so much that I went out and bought a BC29. This is when I decided to do something similar to you Rev138. I bought 30lbs of Dead Rock and only seeded it with 3lbs of LR and 1lb of LS. I then use a little of the old water from my previous tank and let it cycle. It took about 2 weeks before all the levels settle and diatom started. I couldn't wait much longer so I started to add 1 fish and a couple piece of coral. After 2 weeks and they did well, I then added another fish and 4 more piece of coral. They all seem happy and healthy. However 1 thing that I did notice is that they don't recover as quickly when stressed out (ie move rocks around too much) like in the BC14. So for hardy fish and beginner corals, it's not a problem and you don't have to wait too long. For Clams and corals that are more picky with water qualities, wait longer. The key is not to add too many fish too quickly as the bacteria level is not strong enough to adjust to the ammonia spike. The corals are more flexible as they don't contribute much to bioload. This is just my personal experience not as rule of thumb or anything.

 

 

 

Forgot to mention, don't buy any fish that feeds off of living organism from LS as you won't have much in the beginning. I think this is one of the reason why my Diamond Goby doesn't seem as happy in the BC29 as he is my BC14. He keeps on trying to jump out either from fear of the Tomato Clown or he doesn't feel as comfortable hiding in these new dead sand. I'm debating whether I should give him back to the LFS as he's going to get too big for a BC14 even if he have enough food in that small amount of sand supplemented by brine.