Adding Live Rock to existing setup

[Brad]

I have a 10 year old SW tank with very old live rock...that's not so "live" anymore. I've added new lighting and mods and want to start over with a new load of live rock.

As I would like to get as much life to survive on the incoming rock, I'm thinking that I can "supercharge" the setup before getting the new rock. If I feed a lot of ammonia into the existing setup, would I build up a supercharged load of bacteria in my sand and sump? (There's nothing in the tank to kill)

Then, when the new LR arrives, the tank should be able to cycle more quickly due to the abundant bacteria present in the sand and sump. If I can avoid a spike in ammonia and Nitrite, maybe more things will survive on the LR.

Is there merit in this idea?

 

[fishfreek]

Not sure if I like this idea. The timing will be critical as the bactera will only survive as long as there is food for them. Bumping up the ammonia load by adding it to the tank will increase the bactera counts but as that ammonia is processed since its not being constatly added to the system the increased bactera load will itself dieoff back to a level of stability.

How long the ammonia consuming bactera lives with out a source of ammonia I dont know as I never researched it but to me it just sounds like to much work.

When yo uget the rock in the mail you can inspect it and remove the obvious dead items and then scrub the rock where stuff that is dieing is hard to remove.

 

[Brad]

Adding LR to existing setup...

Thanks! I had not thought of the timing aspect.