curing live rock~ restored

[Flounder]

This is a question about curing Live Rock.

How do you know when Live Rock is cured properly?


And if it turns out the piece I just got is not fully cured how would I go about finishing the curing process?

Thanks!

 

[ste2k3]

When live rock is shipped, it is shipped dry to cut down the cost, as it is expensive enough as it is. about 60% of the life on the rock dies during the time out of water. this means, that when you put it in a tank, all the dead stuff (algae, worms, pods etc) will start to decay and you don't want to be putting decaying matter into your established tank so the lfs dump it in a big vat/tank and let any decaying matter die off and the life that survived will start to repopulate. it will never be as live as it was when it wass collected but it is still good. cured just means that there is no decaying matter left on the rock. you can just smell it and if there is a bad smell, then there is still things rotting and it ain't cured. if it smells like.. well, like salt water and dosn't really have a smell to it, then its cured. there are tests you could do but a simple smell is enough. to cure half cured live rock, just bang it in a bucket with a powerhead ind a filter or even better, a skimmer and that will finish the curing. if you don't have anything in the tank, then just put it in the tank and it will just cure in time. if you have live stock already in the tank, under no circumstances put uncured rock in as it will cause water quality probs.

ste

 

[bodasafa]

when the live rock goes through its die off there will some times be a white film on it i take a new tooth brush and scrub it off the die off is going to put a huge ammonia spike in what ever water it is in so test the water do 100% water changes once a week srub the white film off once a week and when the ammonia is at 0% its ok to put in the tank........if you what to see what is in the rock so you dont have any mantis shrimp or bristal worms make a salt mix of 1.030 to 1.040 and put the rock i it for 1 min the rocks inhabatents will run out of the rock and there you can sort through them and pick out the bad guys lol you will have a hard time getting the bristlle worms off you can use plierswell hope this helps

 

[Flounder]

make a salt mix of 1.030 to 1.040 and put the rock i it for 1 min the rocks inhabatents will run out of the rock and there you can sort through them

You make it sound so cute! I will have to remember this for when I get the rest of my rocks this year.

The one i just bought was 6 lbs and cost me a good $50 after tax!

At least it is a good size.

there were other rocks they had just got in that were WONDERFUL! but they said they were not cured. They had this algae still growing on it. Looked like little orange trees . It was really pretty.

I did the smell test and the rock smelled like the rest of my rocks in my tank. I think when I go to get the rest of my rocks I will be going back to the evil LFS to get them. They are the same price if they pick out the pieces. $7.99 lbs. But if I pick out the rocks they are an extra $1.00. THe ones I got from them last time were and are still very nice.

 

[William]

 

[Adrinal]

boda will that concentration of salt kill the "good" bacteria?

 

[bodasafa]

no that high salt will not becouse i only put it in the high salt water for a min in fact i just got 100 lbs of live rock in and i get a buckett and do each rock by them selfs and this shipment of rock was filled will fire worms and mantis shrimp out of 100lbs of rosk there was 38 fire worms and like 18 shrimp i think

 

[Adrinal]

exelent tip!

I want to get more rocks but my tank has been up and running for 2 years and looks great... I am so afraid to mess it up with more rock... but I want to be like STE and am going reef...

I was hoping to just "make" more rock and add it latter... but I hate to mess with the tank after I start putting corals in... It seems rearanging a reef tank is a no no..perhaps just purchacing dead rock would be better?
Or bite the bullet and get more live rock? (can I have it shipped in the winter? water is frozen here till may...)

I did bunch what I have in the center making 2 cool archways so I could add all around the edges in the future...

I have seen some neat sites on making your own rocks... but I dont have much space or confidence atm.


any comments or reactions to these thoughts would be apriciated

 

[Landlocked]

If you're worrying about getting more live rock, but you don't want to pay the high price, be assured that, if you put in dead rock, it will eventually become encrusted with algae, and can be called 'live rock.' (This only works if you already have a good amount of live rock in your tank!)

The only problem with this is that you won't be getting any new organisms in your tank, like you would with real live rock. Whether this is good or bad is up to you.

As for shipping new live rock, where are you?

 

[Adrinal]

First plz excuse my poor writing.. I haven't slept much at all the past week

I am in MN USA. I will be getting new rock next week about 150 LB I want to go with fiji and fiji branch though I may get fiji / fiji branch and something else just for some biodiversity and flaver... just worried too many diff types of rocks will look stupid.

as of yet ecorals seems like the best deal.

pet solutions came out to 666 when I was figuring a ruff estimate... sound like a bad omen? any how I have some stuff to do here... this week... I think I will swap my fw 75 and my sw 75 and that will be quite a back breaker. I have already taken down the sump from the SW (its just 2 year old LR (20-30 lb) (LS 2inches or so) atm no fish and 2-3 hermit crabs).

I want to get a new return pump for the sump and a new one for the skimmer in the sump... I will use the existing POS rios to keep cirulation in one or 2 buckets (I was hoping to find a 60g bucket that would fit in my spare shower...) then run the sump / skimmer in the bathroom with it during the day (its in the main bedroom so I couldnt sleap with that on.)
...........................
I really want to be sure the nitrates are 0 and that it has no evil hitchikers. I had big probs the first time with evil crabs. Should I dip in heavy salt water right away? or perhaps right away, before cure containers and again before putting the rocks in the main tank?

The LR I have now is so smashingly beautiful I dont want to ruin that either
....................................

I plan on putting the new rock off to the side for 4 weeks (well till nitrates reach 0 for a few days.

I can make about 10g of RO water a day at home (probably more but I would have to be on it all the time. I was thinking putting the sump up on a table and letting gravity pull water back to 2 buckets 30 g each (think I can smash 150lb into 2 30g containers?) After curing the rock I would aquascape, then put the sump back and fill her up



any oversites in my moving tank adventures and curing of new LR plz let me know