Did I just do something stupid?

[grinch]

I recently got some advice about replacing bioball junk with LR rubble. So I had a piece I removed from my tank, and it was out and dry for 3 weeks, yesterday I broke it up and put it back in my tank, hoping to innoculate it again with bacteria. My question is, is this dangerous? could I start a mini-cycle from any die off? And how long should I leave it in the tank before putting it in as filter media?

[Dentoid]

This most likely will cause a mini cycle. Your tank may be able to handle it though. Keep a close eye on the ammonia and nitrite, testing daily, if these numbers start to rise, do WCs until the numbers are reading zero again.

I would leave the bioballs in the filter chamber for now until this new (old) rock is "cured". Personally, I'd wait a minimum of 4 week before using it as filtration.

[SJS]

Yes it will cause a cycle again - but how much it will affect your tank is the question. How big is your system? How old is your tank? What are your inhabitants? How much LR/LS do you already have? How big of a piece of rock was this?

For example - I have a big system - about 450 gallons total - if I added a piece of rock to the tank the cycle would be pretty diluted and, I have a 12 gallon nano I use for a QT - anything I add in there is going to affect it much more...

Sooo, if you post more info - it will help you get more info!!

[Dentoid]

Steph is right. Although the information on the size of your system and its specifications are there to be found, people that are not familiar with your posts are not going to take the time to search for it or even look in your gallery.

You may want to add your tanks specifications to your signature, so that when you do ask questions the information will be readily available in every post.

[grinch]

sorry guys and girls, here is the situation: just 8 gallons, and about 12 lbs LR in tank, the piece I broke up was a single branch about 10 inches, and I put 1/2 of it in the tank. Daimeter is 3 inches. Hope this helps.

8g biocube with zoas, 2 feather dusters, hermits, turbo snails, sixline wrasse and shrimpgoby. using polyfilter, chemipure and LR rubble with Ca/Mg exchange ions in center section.

[Origami2547]

Also, depending upon how long the bioballs were in there, when you pulled them out all at once, you removed some of the biological filtration capacity of your system. This alone could cause a transient spike in your parameters though it doesn't seem that you have much in the way of bioload.

I would, over the course of a week or two, exchange the bioballs for the rubble. If you've already committed yourself and the bioballs are "dead" then just monitor your parameters and keep a tank's worth of premixed saltwater handy just in case.

[Rcpilot]

The rock is essentially dead. It's been out of the water for 3 weeks. It's going to be full of organics (dead bacteria and other dead stuff) But that stuff is all dried out. As soon as you put it in the water, it's going to make all that dead stuff soggy and mushy. Then that stuff will start to rot and fall off the rock. It will pollute the tank with organic waste. That will cause spikes in ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.

Here is what I would have done with dried out rock:

Run it under the kitchen sink and scrub the hell out of it with a stiff plastic brush. Knock off all the dead stuff and dried out gunk.

Soak it in saltwater. You can get a 5g Rubbermaid trash can from the local big box for about $10. Fill it with saltwater and put a heater and a powerhead in there. Put your rock in there and cure it.

It will still have rotten organic material on the surface and in the holes and crevices. Take it out every couple days and scrub the hell out of it with the plastic brush. Get that rotten stuff off.

Change 50% of the saltwater in the trash can every week.

You don't need a light.

Leave it in the Rubbermaid trash can for at least a month. 6--8 weeks would be better. Take it out every couple days and scrub it with the plastic brush until all the gunk is knocked off and it's just raw rock. When you have all the gunk scrubbed off--you can stop scrubbing it. It may take 2 weeks of soaking just to get all the dead stuff off it.

Once you have all the rotten and dead stuff off--THEN it will start to grow beneficial bacteria. You can leave it alone at this point and just let it cure to grow the good bacteria. After a solid month or 6 weeks of curing, you can take it out of the trashcan and put it in the tank.

It shouldn't cause a spike by doing it like this.

But:
Thats just me. I'm anal and I don't like taking risks with my reef. The cost of purchasing the Rubbermaid trash can, the saltwater and the effort to scrub it every few days is a helluva lot cheaper than killing your established tank with a piece of rock thats uncured and full of dead organics.

Some people would just chuck it into the tank and pray. I got too much money invested in my tank to take that kind of risk.

[grinch]

thanks I already pitched it (small piece not worth the effort or risk)