Help Please

[sallen]

I have had this uncured lr in my 2ft tank with heater,HOB filter and powerhead for two weeks now. I have only found that the ammonia spiked to .25 and went no further, The trite and trate resulted in zero and i have not had a positive reading yet. The ammonia is now gone to zero. Has this rock cured or not???

 

[blue00si]

It probally has cured. alot of people like to throw in a raw shrimp to help with the cycle. If you got a almost cured batch of live rock that was almost cured

 

[lobstergrabber]

I used the raw shrimp method with my tank because I got hardly any spike at all out of my rock. You might be ok and cycled now but why chance it if you haven't actually had it happen. Throw the srimp in there and make sure.
Rich

 

[sallen]

I got this rock from diving on a local reef in my area. I scrubed it and washed it abit before putting it in my tank and removed most unwanted hitchhikers. So do i have to add a raw shrimp before i can use it in my main tank??? Oh and i forgot to mention this tank in the pic has gone through a cycle before using the same HOB filter but i did not have any lr then. I have only got rid of the crushed shells from the bottom so its pretty bare.

 

[sallen]

Originally Posted by sallen
I got this rock from diving on a local reef in my area. I scrubed it and washed it abit before putting it in my tank and removed most unwanted hitchhikers. So do i have to add a raw shrimp before i can use it in my main tank??? Oh and i forgot to mention this tank in the pic has gone through a cycle before using the same HOB filter but i did not have any lr then. I have only got rid of the crushed shells from the bottom so its pretty bare.
If a use a shrimp and go through a cycle when should i do the water changes. Can I simply add this rock to my main tank when the cycle has finished????

 

[hardcrab67]

IMO if you added the rock to a cycled tank, than you don't need the shrimp. The ammonia was from the little bit of die-off you had on the rock from scrubbing, transfering, etc. The tank is "curing" the rock with the good bacteria established in your filter. Being that you brought it to the tank from a local reef, IMO you just quarrentined the rock, unless you let it dry out to kill the "live" organisms, several weeks of curing isn't required. From the pics looks like your corraline is still intact, very little die-off in my opinion.

 

[lobstergrabber]

One thing I would suggest. Since you got rock from a local reef in florida I would sit each piece out of water for a few minutes and see what hops out. Manti shrimp are prevalent in those waters and you probably don't want to be adding those to your display. This will not work 100% but it should get most of them out. Sitting out of the water 30 minutes or so will not cause any problems for your rock either.
Rich

 

[sallen]

I got the rocks from a local reef in australia, would this matter lobstergrabber

 

[lobstergrabber]

Sorry, I have no idea where I got the idea you were in Florida. I don't know about what pestulent species live in the austrhites but I doubt you have one hiding in a hole on your rock. Maybe someone else will chime in on australian pests or maybe ask a lfs.
Rich

 

[sallen]

Rich
I remember now i turned my filter off for a couple of days when i first put the rock in to cure, just running the heater and powerhead. Do you think the rock will still be ok???

 

[lobstergrabber]

Oh yeah the rock will be fine. I did all kinds of things to the rock on my first tank years ago made it through just fine. Remember the stuff is shipped dry all the time with little problem.
Rich