Adding rock to an extablished tank

Hi! My tank is a 90gallon drilled with a 20gallon sump. It's been running for about a month. I've got 30 pounds of rock that I bought, along with 30 pounds of liverock from my friend. I know that it's all liverock by now. I recently bought 25 pounds of baserock and it's been soaking in water overnight. I want to add it to my tank, but I'm not sure if I have to put my tankmates in another tank while I put the new rock in? They're three 10lb. rocks. I've got a bristletail filefish, a goby, 11 big snails and 5 hermit crabs. The goby claimed a home under the biggest rock that's in there right now. I'm just worried that if I redo all the rock-work, it'll mess things up too much.

TL; DR: How do I go about adding 25lbs of baserock to a 90 gallon tank that already has liverock and fish in it?

 

As long as you rinse it off (just the dust/debris/possible stuck dead stuff) there should be no harm whatsoever in adding as much dry rock to your tank as you want. There shouldn't be any reason for dry rock to mess with your system. Do some research on this "leaching" phenomenon... I think that as long as your dry base rock is calcerous in nature, it should be fine and act just like the live rock you buy. Be sure to buy rock that would typically be found in a reef tank too. I believe that the only reason you would get any "leaching" would be in the case of pH swings, where the water becomes acidic enough to start to dissolve some of the rock, but even then I haven't really found any credible sources for this other than people posting on internet forums. If you're concerned, just run some carbon/GFO. We tend to over complicate things sometimes. Why let dry rocks sit for weeks in a bucket when according to the same logic the live rock we buy could also do the same thing (that is "leach" minerals etc...)? The one case I do know of where you should let rocks "cure" in a bucket for a few months is in the case of DIY concrete rocks, where the cement mix needs to go through a curing process before it can be used in our tanks.

 

The rock I recently bought is the same type that I first bought. Should I put my fish in another tank while I add my rock? If so, should I put a rock in the "QT" + some sand for the goby to be okay in, until I get them all back in?

 

You can do whatever you want with the fish my friend, unless your doing a major over haul with the scape. I would then remove them if possible but if its just adding rock I would let them be.

 

+1 to ^^^

Adding dry rock should cause no issues.