curring live rock?

albie611

albie611

Member
hi all.....
need some info on curring a batch of live rock thats been sitting in a friends house for a while ( close to a year!!) its been in a 30 gal garbage can and covered with water. never dried out. water has been monitored as to not let the SG fluxuate too much ,but not much light or circulation has been provided. he was plaining on using it again and never set up a new tank.
anyway... he's giving it to me and i was wondering if it's still worth using or is it completly useless now. if it's still good , whats the best way to cure it? theres lots of pieces and i was concidering using it to set up a frag tank.
thanks for your help........al
 
dmjordan

dmjordan

Active Member
being that there hasn't been much if any circulation and no mention of a heater it is probably just good base rock by now. i would go ahead and throw a heater and a powerhead into the trash can of rock and test the parameters after a couple of days. if you are starting up a tank and want to use this rock i would at least give it a good scrubbing and high salinity wash. you will still need to seed it with some good live rock to get it to become live again though.
 
1journeyman

1journeyman

Active Member
Agreed. With no light for a year there hasn't been any algae growth so everything "live" on the rock has probably starved by now.
 
S

saltfreak4

Guest
journeyman, could you go onto the site and see my other post?
Thanks
 
albie611

albie611

Member
ok ,
another question, i live near the beach in NJ , could i use the water from the bay to cure this rock since it is questionable that it is still live? will it benafit form the microorganizims in the bay water?
thanks again .......al
 
S

saltfreak4

Guest
Originally Posted by albie611
ok ,
another question, i live near the beach in NJ , could i use the water from the bay to cure this rock since it is questionable that it is still live? will it benafit form the microorganizims in the bay water?
thanks again .......al
Ok, this is just my opinion on this one. I had a saltwater tank years ago when I lived in Cali. I took a lot of things out of the ocean and placed them in my tank. Different things live in different degrees of water in the ocean. The ocean is also a ses pool of stuff good and bad, but mainly the bad will appear in your tank :) I wouldn't go this route, it's like trying to do surgery in a jail cell. Everything has to be steryl and balanced, you know what I mean. I am not sure what the best course of action is, but I was thinking about the microrganisms you can get at the store. Throw so of those in there. Not sure if this would be effective, but I would stay away from ocean water that is not treated and filtered. That's what the aquariums and study labs do that are right on the ocean. That water is filtered and monitored. Good luck
 
albie611

albie611

Member
i week into cure and parameters are as follows:
SG 1.024 , PH 8.2 , temp 78*, amonia >o but < 0.25, nitrite 2.5-5.0, phos >1
i know phos is to high but i used tap water to mix salt
do you think its time for a water change yet or should i let it continue to cycle?
 
reefrobert

reefrobert

Member
I am checking my levels once a week, and doing 50% water changes till they are 0 for the Ammonia and nitrite, just my opinion
 
albie611

albie611

Member
week two: just checked parameters and were:
s/g 1.024,ph 8.2, amonia=0, trite > 0.25 , trate > 100
I did a 75 % water change .
MY ? : is this going well and what else should i do.
i want to add sand and eggcrate because i want to make this my frag tank , should i add a filter or not , or will just a skimmer do fine.
 
reefrobert

reefrobert

Member
The ammonia is 0, that is good! Have to wait out the nitrite spike and then do water changes to bring down the nitrate and left over nitrite. I would not try and bring your salt water SG in the close range of 35ppt until your done doing large water changes, just my opinion!
Not sure on the rest for your frags.
 
mandarin w

mandarin w

Member
I am so glad you had that picture. I always read "you don't need a skimmer on live rock, there is nothing in there".
Everytime I've ever set up a new tank, I always start off with everything running, filter, heater, skimmer, live rock, live sand, and my RO water. And everytime my skimmer goes nuts right from the start. I have to empty my skimmer cup every day, sometimes twice a day.
Thank you for helping my make my point.
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
I love the smell.....I believe when your curing rock you should run a skimmer......I just run the small needlewheel skimmer ASM on my LR curing tank.......
 
albie611

albie611

Member
wow....... i was told not to run a skimmer because it will remove too much
i guess i will now add a skimmer to the set up.
thanks............al
 
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