Thanks guys!

Awesome thread i just was explaining this too someone and you explained it way better in less words i may be copying and pasting this in the future lol

I am pretty happy about the way this thread turned out. Blew my expectations out of the water.

I think we should be careful with statements like this. As Eli point out, not all bacteria are created equal. The kinds of bacteria I think you'e talking about, the nitrifiers that you need to process ammonia and nitrite, are not nearly as resilient as the heterotrophs that do the majority of the decomposing in a tank. Most heterotrophs can go in to a cyst stage when conditions or resources are not optimal, and as a result can be pretty resistant to things like drying, or storage for long periods in bottles of bacterial supplements, but the "true" nitrifiers, the nitrobacter and nitrosoma bacteria do not have that ability. They also reproduce VERY slowly, dividing once every 10-30 hours, vs once every 20 minutes for most of the carbon eating heterotrophs.

If something happens to disrupt a population of nitrifiers, be that a drying event or a sudden swing in temperature or chemistry (thought their tolerance for temp swings is likely greater than anything you'd pay to put in a tank), it can torpedo their numbers enough to cause a spike in ammonia.

Add to that there are different clades of chemo-autotrophs adapted to different concentrations of nitrogenous compounds. If ammonia gets high enough, you can start killing off large numbers of the kind that are adapted to the nearly undetectable levels of a reef. You'll never wipe them out completely, but these issues all contribute to the instability typically referred to as 'new tank syndrome'.

Anyway my point is that no, you'll never kill them all, but when we're talking about the kinds of bacteria that we care about to keep our fish alive, they are more delicate, and slower to rebound than "normal" bacteria. They get all their energy from the bonds between nitrogen and hydrogen or nitrogen and oxygen, and all their carbon from atmospheric CO2. Compared to bacteria that are metabolically "burning" complex carbohydrates with atmospheric oxygen, this is a costly way to meet your energy needs. Hence the lengthy division time, and why it takes so long to cycle a tank.

Exactly , so it can be done....maybe not the fastest method for instant load , but the tanks ability for more load only becomes larger if the environment is healthy enough and it's needs are met , ammonia in large numbers would be harmful to a number of critters yes , certainly , but that doesn't mean you have to settle for amonia.

Fwiw I'm not concerned about amonia , this is something that can be tested , monitored and changed or removd at will......I'm more talking about the curing process to remove phosphates bound to the rock.....this is where my 2 cents came in and the fun curing part i was refering to , still not for the faint at heart but it does show that there's always more than way to the same goal.

As mentioned I'm sure the corals i placed in it had bacteria all over them so it's not a complete start from scratch ;)

I just received a shipment of awesome pukani and shelf rock from Eli ... lots of people seem to suggest the acid bath route, but I can be patient ... if I'm setting up a new tank (currently empty) can I just add the rock to the tank, leave off the lights, and simply let it run for a few months in salt water with a heater until all the parameters look good ?

IF so would I expect this process to take weeks, months, years ? Does it depend on the amount of rock ? (roughly 70lbs) .. IF acid bathing cuts off a 6 month wait time I'll hop on that train ... but it's only 6-8 weeks until everything generally settles I can probably wait.

Nbreau- curing time is dependant on the amount of organics and bound phosphate that the rock contains at the beginning. 6-8 weeks is reasonable on average though. Bleaching and rinsing will breakdown large organics and leave less to cure by bacterial action = faster. Phosphate in the rock needs to be broken off and used by bacteria until it is used up (via Eli's methods).

Reefwars- how did you release and export the bound phosphate in the rock without cooking it? (I'm assuming all dry rock comes from land based mines and is chock full of bound phosphates)

And very well said.

Greg

In order to truly remove it from the system (which is what I think you mean-nutrient export) most likely some phosphate was removed/bound via the gfo , I ran a batch of gfo which has only recently been changed right from the beginning , some through skimming and some is processed in the system down the chain through animals in the system .....basically The same way it would be exported in a tank that housed all liverock :)

As an added twist I use all tap water lol

Tank still has zero po4 on a Hanna , I changed out the gfo recently just to freshen it up :) and no nitrates ever.

Dose is still at 40mls of vinegar over a photo period

Tank has seen maybe 3 water changes now as I did another recently.

Up until now I had no liverock in the system , I added a few Pounds to my fuge as I'm babysitting a ruby red dragonette and didn't want it to starve so wants it to have some life to hunt off:)

If anything my rock should have been packed with phosphates , it sat in 6" of stale tap water while we tested the watfalls , half the rock is out of the water , full tap water , nps corals needing daily feedings and not that many water changes and gfo going on :)

I def could have done worse as i followed none of the protocal steps lol

Coraline has taken over the tank , Rocks are getting almost full coverage on Coraline , I've got feather dusters out the wazoo and glass gets lots of Copepods:)

No cheat in the fuge yet but I honestly doubt it would do much it doesnt in my larger system :)

However do as I preach which is take the steps prior and not as I do lol ;)