curing live rock and phosphates

davyb

Member
I just ordered 40 pounds of live rock and don't know if I should put it in my tank or not. I don't have anything in the tank yet and not concerned about a ammonia spike, however I am concerned about phosphate. My question is will curing rock put phosphates in the tank and if so should I cure it in something else? I do have a skimmer on the tank, will this take out the waste and die off fast enough?
 

nm reef

Active Member
I can't comment much about the possibility of phosphates from the LR...but if you are establishing a new system and it is cycling or getting ready to cycle a new system then LR is a great way to cycle.
I just established a new display a few months ago and used 100 lbs of uncured LR to initiate the cycle.
If you are aking if it would be ok to add the LR and cycle the tank then I'd say yes. If there are phosphate issues they could easily be dealt with later after the water chemistry becomes stable.
 

davyb

Member
I thought that anything decomposing like animals or food would add phosphate. I do have some life in the tank it has been up for 3 mounths with a little bit of rock and now I have pods and flatworms and featherdusters and differnt kinds of worms and 3 crabs. What do you think I should do, will the little life in the tank make it?
 

diddley

Member
when i cycled my 10 gallon, i used 9 lbs. of fresh (still in the shipping boxes at the fish store) live rock. fully uncured rock has a lot more die off then cured or partially cured rock. by the way, it's basically all partially cured if it's being shipped to you, there will be die off and an ammonia spike. after cycling the tank for like 6 weeks, my phosphates were at .5 with a salifert kit. i used marc weiss phosphate and silicate magnet to get them down. my other tank, i used partially cured live rock and phosphates were at .1 after the cycle. phospate won't harm your current residents, it's the ammonia that's harmful. to your question, 40 lbs. of rock will cause your tank to cycle again. it's quite likely your animals will die. cure your rock in a trashcan and then add would be the best idea. if you were adding smaller amounts at a time you would be ok, but that's quite a bit of rock, even for a 75. hope this helps.
 

davyb

Member
Tanks for the reply, I just dont want the phosphates to leach back into the tank later on down the road. I read steve wests thoughts on phospates and he says that the rock will absorb it and then leach back out later on.
 

davyb

Member
I think I will try that I ordered some stuff called Detox 2 it says that it will remove phosphates and ammonia, guess I will give it a try. :yes:
 
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