Adding LR

[Spick]

I currently have 35 lbs of LR in my 35G tank. My tank features 1 yellow tang, 1 cleaner shrimp, 2 false clowns, an open brain coral (flat), a frogspawn and a pearl bubble coral, along with a clean-up crew of snails and crabs. I've had my tank for 2 months now, and want to add about 15 more lbs, will this interupt or disturb any of my inhabitants, and will it harm anything? Need to know ASAP, if anyone has an answer that'd be great.

Thnx

[Reefland]

Hi Spick, Welcome to Reefland!

Adding liverock to an established tank can always be risky unless you take the precautions necessary to ensure the new rock is cured and stable. If you have a trust worthy LFS that you can get the rock from, knowing that they have cured it properly for several weeks then your fine. If you can't have that level of trust, you will need to cure the rock yourself before adding it to be totally safe. If you need some help with how to do that let us know.

Scott Z.

[Spick]

Hi Spick, Welcome to Reefland!

Adding liverock to an established tank can always be risky unless you take the precautions necessary to ensure the new rock is cured and stable. If you have a trust worthy LFS that you can get the rock from, knowing that they have cured it properly for several weeks then your fine. If you can't have that level of trust, you will need to cure the rock yourself before adding it to be totally safe. If you need some help with how to do that let us know.

Scott Z.

Hey Scott.....

Yes i trust my supplier and know that they cure their LR properly, I've never had any problems with them. So then it's safe to go ahead and add a fare amount (15lbs) of LR to my tank? I just don't want a sudden diatom bloom.

Another thing is, recently I've been getting some green hair algae patches, so i bought 2 trochus snails. they don't seem to be doing the trick as of yet. My clean up crew consists of 16 MArgarita snails, 25 blue legged hermit crabs, and my LR came with some Emerald crabs. Could I be adding more variety of snails or crabs to the crew?

Thnx

[Poseidon]

The trochus snails aren't known for eating hair algae. The best know hair algae eaters I know of are the Yellow Tang, (Zebrosoma Flavenses) and the Foxface Rabbit fish (Siganus vulpinus) however both of those species are not well suited for your size tank. I think I would start pulling it out by hand BEFORE it gets a good hold.

[Spick]

So if I were to pull out the rock which has it once by one, i just need to scrub it gently with a toothbrush or something? Another problem is the one rock which has most of it, has my branched frogspawn on it, so would i be okay in temporarely relocating my frogspawn? I know its not good to mvoe corals too often.

[Poseidon]

I would rather see you move the coral temporarily then see a large outbreak of Hair Algae... Trust me it can go south very FAST!