Reseeding Live Rock

[Justdawn]

Hi guys,

I've recently got some live rock from someone, but it has since died off. I have rinsed it off and scrubbed it and added to our saltwater tank. Right now the only thing in the take is live sand, "dead" live rock, and a few pounds of cured live rock.

Both of our lfs states that the old rock can be brought back to be new again. In all of my reading I've read how to cure uncured rock, or to place cured lr into the tank. One lfs states to use Seachem reef builder and reef buffer to the tank to promote growth on the old rock. The other lfs states to use only calcium and a product to sustain dKH.

Does anyone have any experience with this that can clear up a cloudy situation. I know that it has to grow for a while before adding fish, but not sure how to go about promoting the growth of the bacteria and such on the "dead rock"

Thanks for your time,

Dawn and Chris

 

[dskidmore]

Bacteria will migrate from your sand. Just add a food source, like normal fish food or a dead shrimp.

If you want coraline algae on your rock, get a small amount of covered live rock, and scour the coraline into flakes to scatter over the "dead" rock. Some of the flakes will take hold and spead. Just adding another live rock withouth the scouring step will also work, but will be slower.

Some people prefer to start with dead rock so they don't end up with unwanted hitchhikers. You can pick and choose what critters you get in your tank.

 

[Justdawn]

Thanks for the information.

How often should you add the food/shrimp? Once a day, once a week.

Again, thanks.

Dawn and Chris

 

[dskidmore]

Are you familiar with the process of cycling? This website has a good article on cycling. Since you have live sand, you may cycle much faster than the article discusses. Test your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels to be sure. A single shrimp will take a long time to decompose in the tank, slowly creating ammonia over time. When you see ammonia rise and then fall, you can take out the icky remains of the shrimp. If you are using the food method, feed the empty tank the same ammount/schedule you would if there were fish present.

Are there fish in this tank already? If so, the food/waste already in the tank should be suficcient to feed the live rock. The bactiera will spread more slowly, but the conditions will remain safer for the fish. If there are no fish in the tank, we are using the food to force a re-cycle to rapidly increase the bacteria count in your aquarium, with many of them settling into the live rock.

 

[Justdawn]

Thanks for the infomration. I'm familliar with cycling, we have a fresh water tank already. I'll look to find a shrimp to start the process here.

Again thanks,

Dawn and Chris

 

[coolchinchilla]

check out www.garf.org for seeding material to buy.

 

[dskidmore]

Have you tried that? I've heard mixed opinions about garf products. I know they do have some great articles about creating artificial rock.

 

[greenmaji]

Garf grunge.. have I used it.. no.. have I seen positive feedback.. yes.. have I seen negitive feedback.. no