I need to Decide by 12am today. New Rock or Old Rock

[asonitez]

After picking up some Dry rock from Spotter this past weekend I fell in love with the stuff. Basically its perfect and super easy to stack and create awesome caves and the such. It also has a ton of crevices and stuff to mount corals into.

@ 170 Dollars Shipped for 100lbs of Rock from ReefRocks.net it almost seems a steal to start over a new build with awesome premium rock. I am now stuck with a big decision.

My tank is getting wet/mixing salt this weekend and By next Week Monday I will be placing my sand and starting my Aquascape. If I order today by 12 ReefRocks.net will shipout today ensuring by mid next week dry rock will be here and ready to go in the tank. Even if I don't get the tank wet this weekend I'd still like to make the rock decision by today. My tank is running on life support ATM and I need to get those critters out and a skimmer in and my reactors back online.


Option 1: Keep My existing Rock Add ReefRocks (75lbs)

Since I already have 75lbs of Premium ReefRocks I could use my existing Fiji ( w some base rock) as a Base rock and put the nicer looking reef rock on top of it. This way I'll have heavily populated rock from my old tank assisting in the re-populating of my new rock. That combined with Dr. Tim's should cut my cycle down to about nothing. But this would mean I would have some uglier base rock and my tank overall would not be uniform.

This would also mean that any pests that I had (Ich or Bad critters), Some Ugly Algae (not bad), and some Aiptasia (But has been wiped out) could resurface.



Option 2: Purchase 100lbs of ReefRocks for 170 shipped and add it to my existing 75Lbs of ReefRock. Take my time Dry Scaping outside of the tank. Resell my old live rock to cover the cost of the new dead rock (and then some) lol and use the proceeds to get a calcium reactor and some more reef toys. The Con's here is that I would DEFINITELY have to cycle the new rock (with Dr. Tims) and it will take a good while to get all purple and pretty/Mature like my old rock.



Option 3: Keep my Old Rock. Use the New rock on top of it. Spend no moneys reap all benefits of adding good Super Live Live Rock for a super quick cycle. Keep both kinds of rock because its better to have different types of rock than 1 type of rock and I should stop being so OCD about this.

 

[spotter]

Waiting for a tank to cylce is not fun at all however I think you should use some of the rock form your current tank and add to what you got from me as well as any additional rock you got. This way you get the benefit of well seasoned rock in a new system and you can take some time to really inspect the pieces you are putting into the tank. check it over for pest, give it a rodi bath to dislodge any unwanted hitchhikers or add some hydrogen peroxide to help zap any nuisance algae growing on the rocks. What ever you dont use, you can sell to put towards a calc reactor or other toys. If you are considering a calc reactor, I would jump on paul m's in a heart beat. That's a steal of a deal and it kills me to see that on there. I just bought the same model but brand new by the time I added the regulator, brand new tank and media...he is selling that at about a 45% discount. I have never read anything negative about that reactor and if you are seriously considering getting one....thats one to get and I would run to go get it before someone else does!

 

[howze01]

I used all dry rock from Reef Rocks and I love it. The cycle wasn't too bad because I used a bit of rock from my old tank and some seeded from my roommate's sump for a few weeks. I didn't use it in the DT though, that all went into the sump. Seemed the best of both worlds to me. I didn't have much of a cycle either. My ammonia and nitrites were 0 within a week or so.

 

[asonitez]

Ordered some new rock! Thanks guys for your input. I'll grab the new rock use some old rock in my sump to seed that new rock before I bring my reactors online.

 

[NyteGTI]

if you're selling that center tower from your old tank I'll totally take w/e weight that is I'll be putting up a 75-90 system here in a bit & rather than drilling & putting a rod through rock myself yours comes pre drilled haha.