Live Rock

[steve40]

I JUST GOT SOME LIVE ROCK THAT WAS KIND OF DIRTY, HOW CLEAN SHOULD I GET IT BEFORE I PUT IT IN MY TANK, IT IS UNCURED AND HAS ALOT OF DEAD JUNK ON IT AND ALOT OF WET DUST. DO I HAVE TO MAKE SURE I HAVE ALL OF THE DUST OFF BEFORE PUTTING IT INTO MY TANK OR DOES IT MATTER.
MY TANK IS NOT CYCLED YET SO I CAN JUST PUT THE LR IN THERE, SO FROM WHAT I UNDERSTAND I DONT NEED TO CURE IT FIRST

 

[frankl15207]

Steve
Do a search on the Internet for "curing live rock" (use the quotes). You will find a lot of articles on it. Your basic logic is correct. The articles will finish it for you.
And please, kill the cap lock. It's tough on everyone'e eyes.

 

[fshhub]

Just put it in, adn it will cure adn cyle the tank at the same time, as for cleaning, It will always be dirty, but you can clean some of the dusty stuff off, using a turkey baster. YOu should do this anyhow from time to time.

 

[flydan]

Hey,
DUST?! That's not lr, that's tufa or lace rock. (Did it come out of a tank or out of a box?) If it's the stuff you get out of a box just rinse it off real well, then give it a final rinse in some make-up water and add it to your tank. To save $, I like to but a base of large pieces of Tufa on the bottom of my reef and than stack nice pieces of the more expensive lr on top of that. Why bury good lr?
Anyway, eventually the exposed tufa will become lr and after about a year you wont be able to tell the difference between the base rock and lr.
HTH,
Dan'l