Can I replace my live rock with dry rock?

[Hunter Lang]

So today I basically decided I hate my aquascape 😂 not sure what it is about it but I just have not been crazy at all with it. It’s been very tricky to get any corals to glue down to any spots and I’m not big on how each rock looks totally different (color and texture). Got some Caribsea Life rock tonight to exchange in my tank. I really like the look of theirs better and the unique shapes they have. Only problem is it’s dry. Will adding dry rock and taking my live rock out just make my tank cycle all over again? The sand is live sand and should be holding enough bacteria I hope and my refugium but I’m kind of scared to just take out all my rock and put dry rock in it. 

 

pic with the nuvo 10 and green hammer in the middle is my tank now and my aqua scape.

 

other pics are general shapes I ordered 

 

and last pic of that bio cube tank is the whole kind of rock shape/aesthetic I’m going for

 

i obviously will have plenty of leftover rock too but that was the smallest amount they had

[Hunter Lang]

Also, what if I crush up my live rock I have now and put it in my refugium?

[Clown79]

Unfortunately removing the liverock is removing your biofilter. Life rock will not provide enough until its established.

 

You can add life rock to the tank but I wouldn't remove all the liverock(it has life on it that you won't get with dry rock)

[Hunter Lang]

 @Clown79 What if I keep a few pieces of my live rock and crush the rest and put it in my refugium?

[Recci]

It may work but would upset the bio-filter for while. Expect all sorts of algae blooms and cyno to populate the dry rocks for months as it matures. Maybe be a while before you get the nice looking aquascape you desire. 

[WhatsReef]

I'd just throw the dry stuff in one piece at a time (sometimes they can leach phosphates and nitrates people say) and just stack it in the corner. Then after like a week or so it should be ready to fulfill it's bio filtration duties I'd think. If you remove all the current live rock and put in all the new stuff at once the tank will go a little nuts for a while with numbers jumping around and algae blooms like @Recci said. Especially since it's so small.

[Clown79]

1 hour ago, WhatsReef said:

I'd just throw the dry stuff in one piece at a time (sometimes they can leach phosphates and nitrates people say) and just stack it in the corner. Then after like a week or so it should be ready to fulfill it's bio filtration duties I'd think. If you remove all the current live rock and put in all the new stuff at once the tank will go a little nuts for a while with numbers jumping around and algae blooms like @Recci said. Especially since it's so small.

It will take longer than a week. It's exactly like starting a new tank with dry rock with a small portion of liverock. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Clown79]

8 hours ago, Hunter Lang said:

 @Clown79 What if I keep a few pieces of my live rock and crush the rest and put it in my refugium?

If you replace the liverock with the dry rock, it's starting new.

 

Life rock has never leached phos for me. I have added it to 3 tanks.

 

You can put some rubble In the refugium but many don't recommend it especially in back chambers. If you do, put it in a media bag

 

 

Also take into consideration that unless you take out everything and wash the sand, there is a very good chance that when you disturb the sand with rock removal, you will disturb a lot of nasties leading to a possible spike in ammonia, nitrate bloom and algae.

 

Have Seachem prime and ammonia badge handy if you do the switch.

 

 

 

[Recci]

It will take months to be fully mature and work as well as live rock. I am going through the exact same process just now. See my videos in this thread where I add one third live to dry.

 

 

[jservedio]

As others have said, it's not going to work. However, if you let your current rock mature over the next year (maybe sooner), it'll all look exactly the same. Getting coral to stick where you want it can be a little tricky, but you have a small tank and pulling entire rocks shouldn't be super difficult. Getting them exactly where you want while the rock is out is significantly easier.

 

My tank has a mix of wildly different rock - some of my original almost 10 year old concrete "live rock", some pieces of real live rock, and some pieces of newer dry rock and after being that way for 5 years in it's current scape, you can't tell what's what.