will this cause problems??

[vanreefer]

Once my new 120 has been repaired I will need to transfer things into the new tank. But I am starting to have a HA problem... and figured I would cook my rock for a while... My question is if I take the rock out of my current tank suction all the crud off the BB wher the rock used to be... change 50% of the water could I leave all my coral (mostly SPS but few softies, a RBTA) and few fish in the tank... would this cause a cycle because there is no rock in the tank?

ps the coral would be on a eggcrate rack... and there would be a few pieces of LR that some of the larger coral are attached to

[meltdownaverted]

With any big change there will be a cycle. Might not be a big one but there will be a spike. The major thing is you are cooking all but a few chunks of your live rock, which means dead rock with only a few pieces to reseed it. Might be a better idea to cure the problem instead of concentrating on the symptom. The few pieces on rock your corals are on will still have traces on algea anyway.

[Ruth]

Cooking the rocks will not kill of everything it is just a good way to get rid of built up nutrients, PO4, algea etc. from them. They will still keep all of their "live" bacteria and stuff.
I do agree on the cycle though - I think you will have one. The other thing to think about is that you will no longer have the biological filtration of you live rock in your system so it will be a lot harder for it to process the same amount of detrius (sp) and you may have problems with ammonia, nitrate and nitrite without it.

[sumpfinfishe]

Dano,

One concern I have is that when you remove this live rock and crud from the system is that your water is going to get very dirty and even if you perform a huge water change you might get a lot of buildup on your sps. You may want to house the sps in a seperate holding tank for a day or two while you do this, or at the very least give everything a super blast with a baster and monitor it quite often-just a thought I had after removing/treating all my LR for hyrdoids last year.

Goodluck and hope all goes well:biggrin:

[meltdownaverted]

True the bacteria deep inside the rock will survive, but it will be affected. This will reduce your filtering capacity, causing your cycle. Plus all the critters your fish and coral feed on will definatly be gone. You could also leave your rock in the dark for a few days. Alot of the algea will detach and the stuff that is left will take a while to get going. maybe giving your refuge a chance to take the lead over your HA. Let us know how everything goes.

[mr_alberta]

That's what he's doing. He's "cooking" his rock (i.e. extended curing in darkness over several months). He's not literally cooking his rocks...at least I don't think that is what he implies :eek:

[Ruth]

If you are "cooking" your live rock you should not loose any of the bacteria or pods even. You are basically keeping it in the dark for a few months covered with frequently changed water and circulation. Other than light requiring organisms everything else should live and in fact thrive.

[Willow]

That's what he's doing. He's "cooking" his rock (i.e. extended curing in darkness over several months). He's not literally cooking his rocks...at least I don't think that is what he implies :eek:

yes don't confuse his cooking method of algae control with bev's :razz:

[fatpuffer]

i am such a newbie...i also thought he meant it literally!


LOL


Js