Adding Liverocks

[andylee]

any advice from experienced reefers here on adding LRs to an established system?

just got LRs abt twice the amt of those currently in my 3ft.

will need to re-aquascape one of these days, any advice on the frequency i shld add in the new LRs?

and is it adviceable to remove my fishes first b4 re-aquascape?

[andylee]

anyone?

[angelfish]

better cook the rocks b4 put them into your tank. otherwise PO4 problem

[andylee]

cook?

what u mean by cook?

got from a fellow reefer, was only out of water for 2 hrs, believe it's still liverock

[mansiz]

No No, don't cook the LRs, this is not drift wood. PO4 don't really comes from LR, they are from food and wastes. The best aquascaping is that you can see your fishes have lots of swimming spaces, don't crowd too much LRs. Best is to build something like a hench. Don't really have to fish the fishes out, but be cautious not be hurt any of them.

[aquabeAnz]

No No, don't cook the LRs, this is not drift wood. PO4 don't really comes from LR, they are from food and wastes. The best aquascaping is that you can see your fishes have lots of swimming spaces, don't crowd too much LRs. Best is to build something like a hench. Don't really have to fish the fishes out, but be cautious not be hurt any of them.

[jervismun]

IMO the amount of LR you plan to add is way too much... double your existing LR is bound to create problem. But the problem is... if you wait for too long... LR will become DR (died)... so you are in a very bad situation... maybe what you can do is... freshwater dip (for a few minutes) those nice pieces you wanna add (shouldn't exceed 25% your existing LR)... add them in... no need to catch the fish, they will survive one, unless you have highly sensitive fishes... turn your skimmer and filters to full blast!!!

The rest... well... just my 2 cents

[decentkid]

firstly, i believe the rock is from a reefer's tank which is matured. then there is nothing to worry about. u can add it directly in. 2 hrs out of the water isnt a problem

2nd, cooking a rock doesnt literally mean putting the rock in boiling water. it is a good way of introducing new rocks into the system.

cooking a rock is dont by putting a rock in a seperate tank and leaving it covered without lights for weeks or months while running large amount of phosphate removers and regular water changes. undeniably there will be death when a lr is transferred into a new tank. sometimes due to these deaths or new lr originally from the sea, the lr will contain large amount of nitrates, phosphates and detritus trapped within. cooking the lr by the ways meantioned will allow the lr to slowly leach out its phosphates which will be removed by phosphate removers and nitrates which are removed by water changes. keeping them out of the light will prevent algae bloom as a result of the phosphate being leached out.

as a result of this, u can prevent algae blooms which are very commonly experienced in new tanks

3rd, NV dip your liverock in water. u will kill creatures within the liverock and when they die, they realise nitrates and phosphates into your water. worst still when the phosphates and nitrates get trapped within the liverock and slowly leach out again. direct adding of lr into your tank will definately have lesser death then when u dip them in freshwater.

lastly, if u are worried like lets say the rcok is not from a matured tank. then introduce the liverock bit by bit. as in 2 - 3 pieces per week. each piece u add in will lead to a new rise in nitrates which results in a new ANN cycle due to deaths. so to prevent too large a nitrate spike which your fishes might be not able to take, add them slowly.

p.s , rocks from a matured tank will have low nitrate and phosphate trapped within so its safer to add directly

[andylee]

so far what i've done is put the LRs in a container of newly mixed saltwater and running an air stone inside. this has been 2 days already.

had some smaller pieces abt 5 of them which i throw into my IOS currently.

I believe it's from a matured tank but i have been advised by the previous reefer to not to add all at once in order to prevent ammonia spike.

he had advised me to add in slowly but i was wondering how slow?? one big piece every 3 days?

hoping to rescape so if possible would like to add all at once. but now b4 adding in any additional LRs noticed my blue tang kenna ich, so dun wish to stress it further during rescape.

[decentkid]

if u dont want the continue what u are doing...but change water reguarly ..preferbly with your tank water...adding at your rate shld be alright...but i dont really see much of a problem if its from a matured tank

[loster]

yapz... it is good to add it slow... do some water change too. and never ever dip it into the FW

[andylee]

change water?? hmm... then need to mix new one, change with tank water, then use tank water to change with LRs water?

hoping to rescape early and not to wait too long..