Live Rock Intro Suggestions

[nikkita]

Ok, I need some opinions. I currently have a 55 gallon fish only tank (powder blue, banded butterfly, percula clown, gobie, and hermit crabs) with one small peice of live rock the size of a softball that came from an original nano tank but my main decor are skeleton corals (that I always have to remove to clean) I also have a 30 gallon reef tank with 25-30lbs live rock....I would like to do away with the skeleton corals in the 55 but how should I go about introducing the new live rock...a few rocks at a time or is an immediate swap with pre-cured live rock okay to do....worried about new hair algae but the tang may take care of it and worried about unwanted hitch hikers like the pistol shrimp that appeared in my 30 gallon reef? Any suggestions for easiest and best transition? Also some of the peices of live rock in my reef I have decided are too big for the look I want, can I just transfer them into the 55 w/ no problem? Thanks for suggestions.
Nikki

 

[coachklm]

i'd pull out every rock with hair algea on it ...scrub it real good and then replace it back into the tank....if the new lr is cured then yes just replace your old scelotons with the new lr. if you do not get your water perameters stabile you will constantly battle with the unsightly hair algea... you must have high phosphates or something ... dont rely on the tang to get rid of it....
P.S. a 55g is waaaaaayy small for a Powder Blue Tang

 

[chipmaker]

If I read your post right, you want to take live rock from an already established tank (the 30 gal) and use it in your 55 gal tank......well it should be perfectly safe to move it directly out of one and into another. As for algae dunno, I have never really had to deal with any algae problems yet.......

 

[nikkita]

Thanks for your advise, I basically was needing to make sure that once a tank is cycled...adding new live rock won't make it re-cycle. I have had a fish only tank for about 5 years but I am just starting to get into the reefs. You have to excuse the picture of the 30 gallon that was a picture when I first started it in the cycling process. The algae is all gone, have coraline growing, and have a pulsing zenia, pimple mushroom, devils hand and snowflake eel. So far so good, but I did not want to disturb the fish only tank by adding live rock however I am looking into maybe just upgrading the 55 to a 125 gallon and will probably add the live rock at that time. Thank you for your input, it's appreciated!!
Nikki

 

[jester805]

Originally Posted by Nikkita
Thanks for your advise, I basically was needing to make sure that once a tank is cycled...adding new live rock won't make it re-cycle. I have had a fish only tank for about 5 years but I am just starting to get into the reefs. So far so good, but I did not want to disturb the fish only tank by adding live rock however I am looking into maybe just upgrading the 55 to a 125 gallon and will probably add the live rock at that time. Thank you for your input, it's appreciated!!
Nikki
From what I've read about live rock, it's best to make sure that it's VERY WELL cured before you add it to a tank. If it's not, you could cause a cycle if you add a LOT at one time.
You will be fine transfering any pieces from your 30 to the 55. But if you buy new live rock, be sure that it's cured before you add it.