I finally have the numbers down

[ScienceRulez]

finally my numbers are showing significant signs of improvement.
Phosphates are now down to .25
Nitrates are down to just above 0
Ammonia which has been bouncing between 0 and 2, have been at 0 for 10 days now.
Hardness/KH is and has been steady at 9

This has been an ongoing battle since late August to get my parameters in order before replacing the fish that I lost due to Brooklynella. :headwalls::headwalls:

I am NOT putting ANY fish into the tank because I first want to make sure the brooklynella is gone, and I want to put the living rock back that I removed with some home made concrete rock that was put in the tank by my predecessor. The rock has been sitting in a tank back here in the shop waiting for it to grow bacteria to handle the die off that occurred when I took it out of the DT. Which is also showing 0 on Ammonia,Nitrates and Phosphates.

So how do I move the rock back into the tank. Do I do this a few pieces at a time, over several days, or all at once (about 75 pounds total). I also have 70 pounds of dead and dried living rock coming. Can I put that straight into the tank once it's delivered or is that a bad idea?

Mostly this will be a FOWLR tank, but eventually I would like to set up a small coral tank in the support room so the kids can see it through a window.

So where do I go from here?

[lonbrat]

I would slowly start adding the live rock back to the tank, few pounds at a time, like 15 lbs. Every 2 days or so. Once all of that's in, I'd rinse off the dry rock, and slowly add that as well, 15 lbs. Every 5 days..

I wouldn't want to do it too fast. That's just my 2cents ^^

[thegrun]

Since you don't have fish or corals in the tank I would add it all at once. If you still have snails or invertebrates I agree with the above, go slowly to avoid a new cycle.

[nuttyd]

+1 all at once. like pulling a bandaid off. why prolong the cycle when you can get it done all at once.

[jrr98002]

Agree with all at once, provided there is nothing in the tank. No reason to wait if there's nothing that can be killed by a cycle or whatever.

[ScienceRulez]

Agree with all at once, provided there is nothing in the tank. No reason to wait if there's nothing that can be killed by a cycle or whatever.

There are invertebrates in the tank. Big hermit crabs, choc chip sea stars, and pin cushion sea urchins, in my refugium are the bugs, asterina sea stars, algae, etc.

Slowly it is then...

[CStrickland]

That's great news!
I remember your first couple posts, I'm glad to hear you stuck with it :)

[ScienceRulez]

That's great news!
I remember your first couple posts, I'm glad to hear you stuck with it :)

I don't mind saying that after the Brooklynella hit and later the fight with the water parameters, it was really tempting to get rid of everything. I didn't have any kind of emotional attachment to the tank. What really changed it for me was when I set up the 10 gallon QT tank and in the process put some living rock fragments from the LFS. About 3 weeks later I was looking at a coral, bugs, some kind of mystery snail, and what I would later find out to be bristle worms. I was hooked.

In the main tank with only the invertebrates, the hermit crab shells are sporting feather dusters, in the overflow portion of the tank where there is no light, some kind of anemone is multiplying like crazy, I don't know what it is but it seems happy. One has somehow found its way into the carbon reactor. The kids love the refugium with the algae, bugs, astorinas and some other kind of sea star that's the same size but instead of fat arms they almost look like a fat string. Again, all from some Living Rock fragments. There is a bristle worm in there that has grown too big to live in the fragments so it's now living in the algae.

This has almost convinced me to pull out my 110 at home, get some living rock from the LFS and see what shows up. :eek1: