40B Knasty
02/13/2017, 02:48 AM
I had a 20g for a year with 21lbs of live rock. It was a little over crowded. So I setup a 40B. It has NEWLY purchased 20lbs of live rock, 6 fish, invertebrates, and corals from the 20g.
I have 21lbs of OLD live rock still from the 20g.
Here is my story. I brought a frag home one day. Put it in my tank. Low and behold I wake and see that there was 4 aiptasia on it. So you all know what happens next.
So to get rid of it. I put the rock out in my Florida room for a 3 days on a piece of styrofoam to kill things off and dry it out. I boiled the OLD 21lbs of live rock in a clean lobster pot on a deep fryer outside for an hour. Let them sit in the FL room for 2 more days. Rinsed the rock. Put it in the 20g. Changed the water from my 40g. Dumped 15g of that in the 20g with the 21lbs of boiled left to air dry live rock that should be now dead rock. I cycled it. Didn't like the amount of ammonia it was reading from my tests I did for a week. Pulled it all out scrubbed it and baked at 450F for 30 minutes. I drained all the water out also out of the 20g to start off fresh. I really wanted to make sure the 2nd time everything was dead with no questions asked. So I Recycled it again. All I have been doing to reseed it/cycle it is use a table shrimp. So getting the 21lbs to START a cycle is not the problem in the 20g. I have a 425gph powerhead on facing into the rock. A fluval 50 with sponge, carbon, and cnotes in the FLUVAL HOB. A heater as well. So all that is covered. I refuse to use chemicals. I do not want bleach, hydrogen peroxide or acid leaching into my tank down the road or any road. I never used a chemical in my 20g tank for a year. With 6 great fish. Swissguard basslet, grammica lined dartfish, spotted mandarin, Randall's prawn goby, yellow & purple(white) wrasse, and a last bar grey clown. You all might think I am crazy for having 6 fish in a 20g. Trust me they are all best friends. The prawn goby was the only one that could be a jerk at times. Yes only that one. The one that is supposed to be peaceful rated for a 10g. In the 40g there is way less of his attitude showing. So that problem is solved for now. So back to the 21lbs of rock.
My question is about what can die off from the rock. I had great coralline algae on it. Nice pinks that would turn to purple or a cranberry colored one. There was white sponges on the underneath side of the rocks that have all been removed that were visible to me. Before and after the baking of the rock. Now the coralline algae that was once purple or cranberry colored is like a pea green almost white now. I can not scrape this stuff off. It is almost like fossilized to the rock plus there is a lot of it. Will those pieces of coralline algae turn to ammonia from die off? Basically want to know if it is or does. What would be the % of that being on my ammonia tests in your opinion? The 21lbs is the painted kind that is a purple color. I don't want to talk about the 40g, live rock in it, fish, inverts, lighting or sandbed. Just the steps I have taken and where these 21lbs of live rock cycling and being circulated are going and what will be future affects when the ammonia has dropped to zero and I start adding in the 4x5lb rocks in week to week watching for any spikes and mini cycles. Thanks for taking the time to read all of this and any help/experience of doing the same thing/advice towards preventing future things I should watch out for. If you want add how to treat it.
I have 21lbs of OLD live rock still from the 20g.
Here is my story. I brought a frag home one day. Put it in my tank. Low and behold I wake and see that there was 4 aiptasia on it. So you all know what happens next.
So to get rid of it. I put the rock out in my Florida room for a 3 days on a piece of styrofoam to kill things off and dry it out. I boiled the OLD 21lbs of live rock in a clean lobster pot on a deep fryer outside for an hour. Let them sit in the FL room for 2 more days. Rinsed the rock. Put it in the 20g. Changed the water from my 40g. Dumped 15g of that in the 20g with the 21lbs of boiled left to air dry live rock that should be now dead rock. I cycled it. Didn't like the amount of ammonia it was reading from my tests I did for a week. Pulled it all out scrubbed it and baked at 450F for 30 minutes. I drained all the water out also out of the 20g to start off fresh. I really wanted to make sure the 2nd time everything was dead with no questions asked. So I Recycled it again. All I have been doing to reseed it/cycle it is use a table shrimp. So getting the 21lbs to START a cycle is not the problem in the 20g. I have a 425gph powerhead on facing into the rock. A fluval 50 with sponge, carbon, and cnotes in the FLUVAL HOB. A heater as well. So all that is covered. I refuse to use chemicals. I do not want bleach, hydrogen peroxide or acid leaching into my tank down the road or any road. I never used a chemical in my 20g tank for a year. With 6 great fish. Swissguard basslet, grammica lined dartfish, spotted mandarin, Randall's prawn goby, yellow & purple(white) wrasse, and a last bar grey clown. You all might think I am crazy for having 6 fish in a 20g. Trust me they are all best friends. The prawn goby was the only one that could be a jerk at times. Yes only that one. The one that is supposed to be peaceful rated for a 10g. In the 40g there is way less of his attitude showing. So that problem is solved for now. So back to the 21lbs of rock.
My question is about what can die off from the rock. I had great coralline algae on it. Nice pinks that would turn to purple or a cranberry colored one. There was white sponges on the underneath side of the rocks that have all been removed that were visible to me. Before and after the baking of the rock. Now the coralline algae that was once purple or cranberry colored is like a pea green almost white now. I can not scrape this stuff off. It is almost like fossilized to the rock plus there is a lot of it. Will those pieces of coralline algae turn to ammonia from die off? Basically want to know if it is or does. What would be the % of that being on my ammonia tests in your opinion? The 21lbs is the painted kind that is a purple color. I don't want to talk about the 40g, live rock in it, fish, inverts, lighting or sandbed. Just the steps I have taken and where these 21lbs of live rock cycling and being circulated are going and what will be future affects when the ammonia has dropped to zero and I start adding in the 4x5lb rocks in week to week watching for any spikes and mini cycles. Thanks for taking the time to read all of this and any help/experience of doing the same thing/advice towards preventing future things I should watch out for. If you want add how to treat it.