Adding more LR

[saltwater4life]

Alright this is a little newby but i need to add some more live rock to my tank to fill it up but i was wondering if it'd recycle my tank or not I'm going to get it from ILC tomorrow and i was trying to think if there live rock was cured so i though I'd ask

Thanks
Nick

 

[concept3]

depending on the volume of the rock you're placing in the tank in relation to what you already have, you may get a slight spike but not a complete cycle IMO. I once placed 25 lbs of "cured" (so they said, it was about 2 weeks old in the LFS tank, it smelled good too) rock in my 55 gallon that already had 60 lbs to begin with, total water volume empty in the tank was 55 gallons + 12 standing water in sump.

Needlees to say, my corals responded negatively with closed polyps and even some STN so I took out 10-12 lbs (placed it in my then 20 gallon bedroom tank) and left the rest in the main tank. I threw carbon and did a 15% water change after that. Everything went back to normal and then a week and a half later, placed the rest of the rcok back in. Tank recovered, everything went back to normal. Now I know better.

 

[saltwater4life]

So your saying dont add much at a time i mean right now I've got 15lb's i was wanting to add another 10lb's so you think i should only add like 5lb's at a time? I have some happy corals and dont wanna kill them because of a spike...

Thanks
Nick

 

[concept3]

I would go as slow as possible when adding more LR to an established tank. If you have softies and shrooms and a few LPS, they may tolerate it better than SPS. Remember that it's always good to have an extra premade bucket or two of water just in case.

Tank water volume also plays a factor in dilution. If you have a 10 gallon tank with 10 lbs of rock, it's gonna have more water for dilution VS a 10 gallon tank with 25 lbs of rock, so keep that in mind.