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ThatNewFishGuy

ThatNewFishGuy

AC Members
May 4, 2010
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I really hate the look of the live rock in my system. I cant create an aquascape that looks like a "reef" because no matter how I stack it, it really just looks like a pile of rock. Not only that, placing corals is a major pain because frag mounts dont place well on the mostly flat surfaces So basically, what I want to do is replace most of the rock in my system with this kind of rock:

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store...ry-rock/brs-pukani-dry-aquarium-eco-rock.html


However I am not sure as to how to go about replacing the rock. I dont want to remove so much that it throws off the biological filtration that my ugly rocks are doing for me. In general I am not sure how to do this. One plan I had was to remove some of my ugly rock and throw it in a garbage can with the dry rock so that the dry rock may become live. How long would it take the dry rock to become as good as my ugly rock so that I may switch them out in my tank?

Or can I just throw all the dry rock in my tank(after soaking it for a week or so) into my tank and slowly remove the ugly rocks little by little week by week?

Has anyone ever changed out their rock before? How did you go about doing it?
 
greech

greech

AC Moderators
May 13, 2009
4,193
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53
Tallahassee, FL
Real Name
Graham
You can add a piece or two at a time as long as the dry rock is clean but I strongly suggest you cure the rock in a separate tank/bin with a few pounds of your mature rock. It will take a few weeks to cycle through and seed and you will do this the same way you cycled your original rock except IF the dry rock is clean you probably won't see much (if any) of a cycle but are rather just seeding it.

I can tell you from personal experience that while pukani from BRS is about the nicest looking rock I have seen in terms of porosity and shapes, it is loaded with decayed material and organics. If you don't have a small cycle at least, I would be shocked and aside from that a lot of people (including me) have elevated phosphates and silicates (diatoms) from using it. If you choose pukani I suggest you pressure wash the heck out of it first and then cure it with some LR. While curing I would use a phospahte/silicate remover like Rowaphos and move a crap load of water through the rock. The other rock that BRS sells is very nice and the ecosaver figi is clean. Marco Rocks and Reef Cleaners also sell some nice dry rock. Not sure where you live but shipping within Florida is really cheap and fast with Reef Cleaners.

The great thing about curing rock like this is that you can use the water change water from your DT to exchange water in the curing bin. However, if you get some clean dry rock you may not need to do too many (if any) water changes on the bin as you will just be seeding the rock instead of cycling it. Just sprinkle a little food in the bin now and then to keep feeding the bacteria. If you use pukani you probably will not need to add a food source.
 
RNeiswander

RNeiswander

Bunned
Nov 27, 2010
1,100
2
36
36
SW Ohio
I completely agree on the pukani, I used it and it looks great, but to do my tank over I would have done the eco saver rock or I would have cured the pukani first.


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
 
Khemul

Khemul

Sea Bunny
Oct 14, 2010
1,617
1
0
South Florida
Do you have any pictures of the current rock and setup? We may be able to offer suggestions on making it work. I find a hammer and screwdriver does wonders for uncooperative rock.
 
ThatNewFishGuy

ThatNewFishGuy

AC Members
May 4, 2010
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Thanks for all the replies guys. I think I will definitely go with the clean eco saver rock rather than the pukani in that case. I recently tried to clean some algea on the bottom side of my tank. While I was cleaning, my hand accidentally spazed the wrong way and I nudged a rock. That one nudge crumbled that entire side of the aquascape. I was too frustrated to even attempt to make a cool looking scape so I just piled all the rocks on top of each other and thats how I have it as of now. ^I definitely need to get some pics up
 
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