Transferring Live Rock ?

A

alig666

AC Members
Aug 20, 2000
9
0
0
London
Hi,

I have a 30 gallon that has been up and running for about 18 months now with about 20kg of live rock. I've just bought a 55 which is currently sat next to it. The 55 has RO and sand in it and I'm about to start cycling it. The idea is to transfer everything (except substrate) from the 30 gallon to the 55. My question is, when should I add the LR to the 55 ? Is it ok to add half the LR as I drop my cocktail shrimp in ? Or should I wait until the cycle is completed before adding the LR. I dont want to kill anything off of the rock by adding it to early.

Thanks for any help
 
You can do without the whole cycling and shrimp thing IMO. Move the rock now. You should have no die off, the rock is stable and will be out of water for a few minutes. You're essentially transplanting an established bio-filter to a new "sterile" system and will probably see no ammonia spike at all.

You should be able to begin stocking almost immediately, just do it slowly to give the rock time to adjust to the new configuration and reach an equalibrium with the new tank.
 
Can anyone else recommend just swapping everything over ? I dont want the whole lot to crash on me thats all, and if I do move it, is my tak considered cycled ?
 
I would concur with Satch's suggestion...

IDEALLY, I'd put a couple shrimp in the tank with just the sand, let it cycle normally and then move the LR over to it, but this will work too... Just expect some mini-cycles to occur as all the bio-capacity (bacteria) that lives on the glass will be lost... Meaning, and I'm going to just grab hypothetical numbers here, if your LR can process 2ppm of ammonia per day and the bacteria on the glass can process 1ppm, a biocapacity of only 2ppm will go to the new tank... Then, if you stock with fish capable of producing 3ppm per day, that extra 1ppm will cause a mini-cycle, until your system can catch up... Where as if you cycled with the shrimp initially, you'd lose no bio-capacity and infact you'd GAIN from the massive ammonia spike the shrimp will cause...

But, Satch's idea is very sound and almost 100% accurate.. You will see a spike if you exceed the bio-capacity of the rocks =) For example, if you throw a large Lion or Trigger into a tank that has the bio-filter from a tank previously used for a few damsels, the bio-capacity will be greatly exceeded and thus a spike will occur...

In other words, it is completely doable, you just hafta go very slowly... Good luck!
 
IMHO even if you go with the shrimp method your bio capacity will eventually adjust to your tank's bio load. For instance, after cycling with a shrimp, if you only add 1 fish for the first month, the bacteria level will decline due to the lack of nutrients. IMHO in order to keep the large biological capacity created by a shrimp cycle, you need to also aggressively stock the tank and therefore keep "feeding" the large amount of bacteria. JMHO.
Brian
 
Agreed with everyone (how's that for diplomacy?). Personally, I would just move the rock over as previously stated. Raven is absolutely correct in that the rock will have to adjust to the greater volume, new configuration, etc. This is where the slow stocking comes in. IME, if you see a cycle at all, it will be extremely small and short lived.

Brian also makes an excellent point, which is why I never bought into the shrimp cycling when using LR. True, with this method you create a killer bacterial bed, but unless you're going to stock heavily in one shot, this bacteria is going to starve.

Move the rock, take it slow, and you'll be golden.
 
Thanks to everyone who replied, I feel a little safer doing it now. Just to note the bio load is going to be small anyway so perhaps moving the LR straight in is the best way to go anyway.
 
Brian nailed the reason for shrimp cycling, it lets you stock pretty much whatever ya want as soon as the cycle ends... He also nailed the drawback, that unless you DO stock it soon, the bacteria will start to die off...

We may argue specifics about how the process works, but I think everyone here agrees that you will be just fine if you move the rock straight over... Just match the salinity, temp, ph, etc and watch for a mini-cycle for the first week or so.. Have a 25% water change ready to go, just to be safe...

Btw, if you have any sponges on the LR, make sure you do not expose them to air cuz that will destroy them.. Move em in a bowl of water..

What is going in the new tank?
 
Well initially it will be a Scooter Blenny, a Purple Firefish, and a couple of Cleaner Shrimp plus some hermits. I also have a Dwarf Lion and a False Perc in my 30 gallon but due to the Lionfish eating the smaller False Perc I'm trading that in at my LFS and also letting them have the remaining False Perc, the plan is to leave the tank a month or so with the new inhabitants and then add a mated pair of Maroon clowns. Then further down the line a Flame Angel although I dont know if that will be pushing stocking levels or not ?
 
I think that you may be able to get away with it. Maroons and flame angels are both territorial. Since it's a pair, it may be worse. If you have enough space and territories for the fish though, it will be fine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom