Gutting the tank

V

Victorio

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Oct 30, 2006
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Ok i have had my tank set up for just under a year now, when purchasing the liverock the chap in the store said it was cured. Thinking back now im pretty sure it wasnt.

Now the rocks in the tank look dusty and a little bit dirty, im pretty sure its also contributing to the my increased nitrate levels which i cant seem to get down past 20.

All the fish are doing well, i do around a 10% water change every week or so. Now my idea is that im going to get two large containers and empty the tank half way, remove all the live rock etc.

They will go into the tub where i will have a power head removing all the debris. After which they will be returned to the tank with new water of course, with around 50% of the old water already in their.

Question, do i also remove the fish to reduce the stress as the water may cloud?

Im going to pretty much gut the tank apart from half the water and sand etc, the live rock will be put back in looking alot cleaner.

What are your thoughts on this as its beginning to annoy me a little bit, should i just leave it alone?

Thanks in advance for your help with this, any input would be greatly appreciated.
 
IME, if it wasn't cured, you'd see the evidence in the first couple weeks not a year later.

Have you tested your replacement water for nitrate to see what you're starting out with?

What kind of cleaning crew do you have?

I'd run a couple power heads in the tank with sponge filters to try to regain some clarity before putting the fish back in.
 
Whether the rock was cured or not when you got it from your LFS, it is cured now after being in your tank for a year.

Sounds like you are describing shedding which is common with live rock. Most people live with it but some people "cook" their live rock to mitigate this. However the process of cooking live rock takes a couple months minimum and involves running your rock in a separate tank or storage bin with a powerhead and a heater. Every 2-4 weeks, the rock is washed off with a power head and moved to a bucket of new saltwater while the holding tank for the rock is emptied and cleaned of detritus before filling it back up again with water and placing the rock back in. The idea is to starve the bacteria living in the rock so that the only available food source is the organic matter built up in the rock themselves. Once this is depleted, the rock can be placecd back in the tank and will function as mechanical filtration with little to no shedding for at least a couple years.

Taking the rock out just for a short rinse off won't do much for you as I suspect it will look pretty much the same again within a couple weeks. If cooking is outside the realm of what you want to do (I think only fanatics are dedicated enough to go through with this process), I would suggest leaving your rock in place and getting into the habit of dusting off your rock with a powerhead or a turkey baster on a weekly basis. You could also redirect or add more powerheads to direct more flow at your rocks. This will help to keep the shedding suspended in the water (or at least hidden in your sandbed).
 
Yeah. I do as Drobes said, and blast my LR with a turkey baster. It stires up the junk, and gets it taken away by the skimmer.
 
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