lets play will it cycle?

So I really dislike all the xenia, gsp, and a typle of paly that is taking over my tank. I tried manual removal but the xenia just keeps spreading... I really don't want to start a completly new tank (thats a lie I really want to but I am hoping to move within the next year) so I am thinking of trying to revilitize my current 56 gallon. Tell me if you think I will have a cycle if: I put all of my water and rocks that don't have any culprits on it in a 50 gallon rubber made and order 20-25 lbs of dry rock. I could replace the sand bed need be.

Issues i see..under estimating rock I need because I don't want to put anything that has xenia on it in my tank..I could put those pieces in my sump and run it dark for a few weeks just so I don't loose that good bacteria for my tank.

If I had to replace the sand,the removing it part wouldn't be a problem, I could remove all the rock work and water first than just scoop it out with cups then scrub the tank. And I have plastic white egg crate down there so I would like to spray krylon on it anyway if I were to replace the sand because I have heard of it leaching posphate (and I believe it because I stuck it in my tank as a frag rack and got a ton of algae) My main concern would be would I loose to much good bacteria by doing so. In an ideal world I would like to do everything in one day. Remove rock & water. scrub tank, replace sand, add new dry rock, add old rock... I can move most of my corals to my frag tank / grow out tank if there were to be a cycle. I would just be screwed on my larger lps. Welso / hammer / frogspawns. I guess I could throw them in my fuge and change the 6500k bulb for one on my par 30's.

end ramble...thoughts?

 

Why don't you just remove the rock with the undesirables and replace it with new rock? That way you don't stir up the sand bed, you don't need to remove your entire rock work and you don't need to pay a substantial amount of money on new rock.

I wouldn't touch the sand bed or the rock work in an established tank unless my hands were tied. It takes some much time and effort to establish a tank, that I don't see the benefits of doing so to remove undesired coral.

I would remove the rock with the corals, frag it, give it the LFS in exchange for new rock.

Maybe I'm not understanding your thought process?

 

The part that scared me and why I thought it might be better off to remove the sand is that the rock sits below the sand level. So when I pull out the rock it may stir up the sand. I think if I do it gental enough I can get the rock out without doing to much damage..hopefully

 

And the undiserables are all over the darn xenia has gone everywhere and I have designer corals that they are starting the encroach on so I'd rather spend the money to get new rock rather than loose my sps and zoas

 

Treat the xenia like aiptasia, squirt em with some juice

 

I think at the levels I would need to squirt my tank would become toxic, out of 55 lbs it is probabally on 30 lbs of it