Is this quality fiji live rock?

reefkprz

reefkprz

Active Member
I would definatly go with uncured LR straight out of the box and into the tank to cycle, the smell of curing LR isnt as bad as you might think, if you keep your ammonia down below 1 there should be no smell at all, in my last sand cycleing batch my ammonia hit 6.1 and the water didnt smell. this was old sand out of a 120g tank a friend had broken down, I didnt bother with trying to keep the ammonia down because the sand had been dry for weeks so there were no critters to try and save, but was still dirty so it needed to be cycled.
 
moneylaw

moneylaw

Member
Originally Posted by Kilhullen
All your questions are similar to my questions. Thanks for posting this. Your questions and the responses you are getting are helping me a lot too.
Glad that someone else is also getting benefit out of it. Feel free to ask questions too.
 
moneylaw

moneylaw

Member
Originally Posted by reefkprZ
I would definatly go with uncured LR straight out of the box and into the tank to cycle, the smell of curing LR isnt as bad as you might think, if you keep your ammonia down below 1 there should be no smell at all, in my last sand cycleing batch my ammonia hit 6.1 and the water didnt smell. this was old sand out of a 120g tank a friend had broken down, I didnt bother with trying to keep the ammonia down because the sand had been dry for weeks so there were no critters to try and save, but was still dirty so it needed to be cycled.
Thanks. you said keep ammonia down below 1. Is that mean change the tank water during the curing process? I read articles about removing dead species during curing, but nothing about water change during the curing time.
Also after curing the rock and cycling the tank, how big of water change should I do before putting in fishes? I meant how much of nitrate will curing LR generate at the end?
 
1journeyman

1journeyman

Active Member
Originally Posted by moneylaw
Thanks. you said keep ammonia down below 1. Is that mean change the tank water during the curing process? I read articles about removing dead species during curing, but nothing about water change during the curing time.
Also after curing the rock and cycling the tank, how big of water change should I do before putting in fishes? I meant how much of nitrate will curing LR generate at the end?
Yes, do water changes as needed during a cure to keep ammonia below 1.
Do water changes afterwards as needed to get Nitrate down.
To cure rock (and any rock that is shipped to you will need to be cured), get a new toothbrush and go to town. Scrub the rock well, rinse in saltwater, then place in container.
You can cure rock in a tank to cycle it, but you might need to trap unwanted critters such as Mantis Shrimp.
 
reefkprz

reefkprz

Active Member
honestly you could do a 100% waterchange after curing for the best start.
I do water changes on the cycle water to keep the ammonia down normally. lots of people dont but you get the highest microfauna survival if you keep the ammonia lower than 1, .5 would be ideal but it can be darn hard to acheive on cycleing rock.
 
moneylaw

moneylaw

Member
Originally Posted by 1journeyman
Yes, do water changes as needed during a cure to keep ammonia below 1.
Do water changes afterwards as needed to get Nitrate down.
To cure rock (and any rock that is shipped to you will need to be cured), get a new toothbrush and go to town. Scrub the rock well, rinse in saltwater, then place in container.
You can cure rock in a tank to cycle it, but you might need to trap unwanted critters such as Mantis Shrimp.
Is there any such thing as over scrubbing the uncured LR?
Also, I google Mantis Shrimp and found some beautiful pics of Mantis Shrimp. If I haven't read your respond, I would never have thought they are unwanted critters. So many things to learn, my head is going to explode.
 
lovecraft

lovecraft

Member
Originally Posted by reefkprZ
honestly you could do a 100% waterchange after curing for the best start.
I do water changes on the cycle water to keep the ammonia down normally. lots of people dont but you get the highest microfauna survival if you keep the ammonia lower than 1, .5 would be ideal but it can be darn hard to acheive on cycleing rock.
That piece of info should've been in the beginner sticky.
I studied every article on that sticky and read as much as possible but didn't come across this till later. My ammonia went off the charts during the cycle and worried me greatly but almost everything I had read about the cycle process said to wait for it to complete before doing the water change. Of corse I followed the instructions to the letter.
Certainly not ur fault and I read your posts cause u certainly got skillz

It's just one of those things I wish I knew when I started.....
 
kilhullen

kilhullen

Member
Originally Posted by moneylaw
Is there any such thing as over scrubbing the uncured LR?
Also, I google Mantis Shrimp and found some beautiful pics of Mantis Shrimp. If I haven't read your respond, I would never have thought they are unwanted critters. So many things to learn, my head is going to explode.

*IF* I remember correctly - and I will admit that is a really huge *IF* - the mantis shrimp is not so bad as an animal, it is the powerful claw that as it grows becomes strong enough to shatter the aquarium glass. The shrimp as an animal (what it eats etc.) I believe is beneficial but you don't want them shattering the tank glass with their "sonic booms".
 
lovecraft

lovecraft

Member
Originally Posted by Kilhullen
*IF* I remember correctly - and I will admit that is a really huge *IF* - the mantis shrimp is not so bad as an animal, it is the powerful claw that as it grows becomes strong enough to shatter the aquarium glass. The shrimp as an animal (what it eats etc.) I believe is beneficial but you don't want them shattering the tank glass with their "sonic booms".
Search these boards on Mantis Shrimp and you will change your mind. It's one of the things I pray I don't get as a hitcher. Those things have been known to kill everything in the tank if it gets big enough....as well as the possibilty of cracking glass. I've read these things are pure predator with an attitude. I would never consider them beneficial to my reef tank from what I've read.
But you're also right, they are beautiful in their own predatory way but to be kept in their own species tank.
 
1journeyman

1journeyman

Active Member
Originally Posted by Kilhullen
*IF* I remember correctly - and I will admit that is a really huge *IF* - the mantis shrimp is not so bad as an animal, it is the powerful claw that as it grows becomes strong enough to shatter the aquarium glass. The shrimp as an animal (what it eats etc.) I believe is beneficial but you don't want them shattering the tank glass with their "sonic booms".
No, Mantis are predators. Very aggressive predators. Some feed on fish, others on your snails and crabs.
They are also very intelligent. They figure out very quickly that you are trying to get them and will hide like the Chupacabra.
 
earlybird

earlybird

Active Member
Originally Posted by moneylaw
Is there any such thing as over scrubbing the uncured LR?
Also, I google Mantis Shrimp and found some beautiful pics of Mantis Shrimp. If I haven't read your respond, I would never have thought they are unwanted critters. So many things to learn, my head is going to explode.

Here's my take on the live rock. I ordered the 45-50 lb box from SWF. It came a day earlier than I expected but the rock did great. I rinsed my rocks, shook the hell out of them, and I blasted them with my mag drive and then I did it again before I put them in the tank. Picture 1 below. Picture 2 is before they went into my tank.
You'll know what to scrub off as there are dead corals, algae, and other funky stuff. Keep the rock submerged when you scrub. My ammonia never went above 0.25. The idea behind keeping the ammonia during the cycle below 1.0 or 0.5 to be safe, is to keep some of your microfauna, algae, worms, snails, crabs, and even nitrifying bacteria alive that may be in the rock as hitchhikers to increase your bio-diversity in your tank. My tank leveled out at about 3 weeks. Good quality rock. No mantis or anything really cool yet as for hitchhikers but the rock is immaculate with great colors and no nusiance algae to speak of.

 
reefkprz

reefkprz

Active Member
Originally Posted by moneylaw
Is there any such thing as over scrubbing the uncured LR?
IMO yes, you can over scrub uncrured LR, while you do want to get off a lot of the dead stuff, totally removing anything on the surface would be bad as, sponges (cool hikers) generally die off in transit but some species create gemmules (think seeds) that survive in the dead bodies to regrow and show up months after the cureing process is over, as well as the internal layers of coraline can survive but if scrubbed off may take longer to regenerate, I would blast the rocks with water in a seperate container, swish them around really good to get off the loose stuff, then place them in the tank to cycle. plus scrubbing the surfacew of the rock could damage any live featherdusters or things like that living on the surface of the rock.
 
moneylaw

moneylaw

Member
Thank you all for ur replies. Learned a lot from this thread. One final question about LR if you don't mind. I have decided to get LR from online store. So should I choose next day shipping or second day shipping? Second day shipping will costs me about $30 and next day shipping is going to cost me about $100 and extra work of picking it at the airport. (for 50lbs of rock). If there are not much differences, I would like to choose 2nd day shipping. Please let me know how big of the differences it is going to be. Thank you again.
 
1journeyman

1journeyman

Active Member
Originally Posted by reefkprZ
next day IMO, the faster you get it the less die off there is.
Absolutely.
I really really suggest considering rock from this site. It's well cared for and good stuff.
 
moneylaw

moneylaw

Member
BTW, this site only offer two days shipping for live rock? I can't upgrade the shipping to overnight/next day?
 
earlybird

earlybird

Active Member
Originally Posted by moneylaw
BTW, this site only offer two days shipping for live rock? I can't upgrade the shipping to overnight/next day?
Don't think so. Mine was out of the water for 2 days and it survived very well.
 
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