LR Question

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Dave918

New Member
Hi All,

New guy here! Although I have been into freshwater aquariums for a number of years, I'm a complete newby to SW and reef setups. I plan on setting up a nano reef sometime in the not to distant future, but want to read and learn as much as I can first - because my last attemt (about 2 years ago) ended in complete failure.

Here is my question - Can I reuse the 5 or 6 lbs of LR (now dead rock) left over from my previous attempt and just seed it with some new LR? If so, about how long should it take for the dead rock to start to re-colonize?

Thanks,
-Dave
 
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incysor

New Member
Rock will definitely become re-colonized with bacteria. It'll just be awhile before it's much of a benefit. I can't really think of a decent way to determine how long it would take though. If it were me, and since it's a nano, I'd ask around and see if anyone with a large tank would be willing to trade you some small pieces of rock out of an established tank for yours. It's not gonna make a dent in their system, and you skip the waiting. Maybe throw in a six-pack to sweeten the deal. :D
 
djconn

djconn

New Member
Hey Dave918 and welcome to nanotank :gh:
Yes, your old rock will be okay but it will be awhile until you begin to reap the benefits of 'live rock' in your tank which I think is very important in a nano. I'm with Incysor in that I'm not really sure as to how long it would take for the rock to come back to live with various bacterias, copopods, calcium and algaes, etc. I would talk with your LFS and see if maybe they would give you some credit for your base rock and you could just pick up a few pounds of live. I've added dead base rock to my 20 a few times but its well established and it didn't even change my parameters.

What size in your tank?
 
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Ritsuko Nashida

New Member
I realize I am new here (My english isnt so great either) but I have several tanks from a 20 gallon Nano Reef all the way up to a 240 gallon Reef and a 300 gallon frag system. I probably have somewheres in the area of about 800 lbs of live rock. Most of this Live rock was DIY rock. In my Nano Reef I did use a lot of dead rock for the most part. Generally speaking it will colonize with bactieria pretty quickly after being seeded with some live rock. It will take a while before you start seeing coralline algae growth. In my experience, I have found that about 2 months out you will start seeing some specks of coralline algae popping up on your rock. If the live rock you seeded the tank with had any Feather Dusters then they will start making their apperance on your "dead" rock shortly there after. Depending on water quality/lights...it will be about 6 months to 9 months before you start seeing some decent coralline algae coverage. A way to expidite the process is to get some coralline Algae spores form an on-line vendor and add them to your tank. If you are a tightwad like me you can use coralline algae scrapings from the glass of another tank and sprinkle this into your tanks water and it will speed the process up by a bit. Its still a fairly slow process but it will eventually come around for you.

When seeding a batch of new DIY or Dead rock I like to run actinics only, keep calcium & Stonium levels a little on the high side of things. Maintain your Ph and Alk levels at the proper level too and provide brisk water flow in the tank. You will notice that the coralline algae will start showing up on the Dead rock in areas that dont get much light, so this is the reason I run actinic only lights for a couple of months.

This has been my experience and has worked well for me to date. Your "milage" may vary....

Good luck!
 
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Dave918

New Member
Thanks for the info guys. I picked up 3 pounds of LR and 2 pounds of LS from my LFS to seed both the sand and rock in the tank. We'll see what happens.

Tanks size? well talk about having to change plans in a hurry. I started out with a 12 gallon Nano Cube, but the dang thing started leaking heavily the other night. Seemed to be leaking all around the seam between the glass and the filter. Ever heard of that happening before?

Well in order to save my sand and rock I quickly changed over to the only other tank I had - a 29 gallon. Decided to get my money back on the nano and leave the 29 gallon setup. Added more sand the next day to get the right level, and I'll need to add more rock now. Does a 29 gallon quallify as a nano?

-Dave
 
Phischy

Phischy

New Member
A 29gal does not count as a nano, but no worries, I'm setting up a 40 w/ a 15gal sump (only 1/2 full...). So even though you may not qualify like me, there isn't much difference between a 'nano' and regular tank. Well, except the water parameters can get screwy faster in a nano. It's nice to know I'm not the only 'renegade' on this forum anymore!
 
djconn

djconn

New Member
Great comments on coralline growth Ritsuko! I think we all learned from that informative post.

Dave918- like Phischy said, I usually consider nanos anything under 20. But lets face it, a 29 isn't a huge tank by any means. Some people consider anything under 30 a nano. So Dave and Phischy, by all means feel free to post on my site! :color:

Never heard of a nanocube leaking like that. Was it new? That is strange. Glad you were home to catch it.
 
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Dave918

New Member
Yeah, it was right out of the box new. My fault for not completly testing it first, but I did clean it and didn't notice anything wrong. I've bought a number of new glass tanks over the years and never had one leak, so this was a first for me.

-Dave
 
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