live rock

[vizia2]

is it esential to cure pre cured live rock when you get delivery of it. if so how do you cure it? i found a place that sells 46lbs of good pre cured fiji LR for $159, im gana buy 90lbs of it and i dont have a big enuf tank to store it in a cure it. even the stuff on this site sells pre cured rock, but they said i can just put it strait in. So what do i do, do i really need to cure it.
thanks

 

[beth]

I'll move this over to the reef forum for you, but basically if you have an established tank already with anmimals in it, you should make sure that your rock is fully cured prior to it going into an established aquairum that is already stocked. Otherwise, if the LR has any dieoff, it won't happen in your display. If you are getting the LR from a LFS, likely it is already cured, unless they just got a shipment in. You could move whatever livestock you have over to a separate tank temporarily and then put the LR in the display.
That said, I got all my LR from this site, which, of course was shipped to me. SWF.com told me then that the LR was 80% cured. I set it up in a new tank...along with mostly LS and some dry sand, and my tank never cycled. I have had zero readings on everything since day 1. However, I had no animals in the tank [except what came in on the rock] when I set up the LR and I waited 2 mos before adding any livestock.

 

[califishdude]

Beth is right, if you had uncured Lr your tank will cycle. You get get a huge rubbermaid container and fill it up with SW from your water chabeg fro myour main and and had some fresh , put a heater and powerhead init and let it cycle that way for a few weeks to help cure it again. I need to start this too cuzi need about anohter 200 lbs of LR for my 240 im setting up.

 

[newbe reefer]

I put cured LR strait into my astablished tank and had no cycle.
My .02

NewBe

 

[myescape0]

To be sure that the l/r doesn't have any unwanted creatures such as bristleworms or mantis shrimp...try soaking it in high salinity water for up to 30 minutes. The shrimp usually come out right away but the bristleworms may need you taking tweezers and gently pulling them out.Try not to break them for they regrow.
Salinity should be at .03 or higher. We got a baby lobster out of ours but I think my snowflake eel ate it.

 

[overanalyzer]

Originally posted by myescape0
To be sure that the l/r doesn't have any unwanted creatures such as bristleworms or mantis shrimp...try soaking it in high salinity water for up to 30 minutes. The shrimp usually come out right away but the bristleworms may need you taking tweezers and gently pulling them out.Try not to break them for they regrow.
Salinity should be at .03 or higher. We got a baby lobster out of ours but I think my snowflake eel ate it.
I agree in terms of getting otu the mantis but you want to keep the bristle worms to hel keep your sand bed clean.

 

[tangman99]

You can get cured live rock that will go directly in your tank, but know the source and how long it takes to get it. It may be cured when it leaves, but may have some die of during shipping.
When I ordered mine, it was in my tank in less than 18 hours from the time it left the suppliers tank and I had no cycle.

 

[serpentine5]

My 2 cents, I got all my LR from SWF = Walt Smith.I did have a cycle after it went into my tank. All my levels spiked. I believe it took two days after I placed the order for it to arrive at my door. If you get a chance to go to your LFS, ask one of the more knowlegable and friendly folks there to show you some LR. Pay attention to the smell of the LR. Most times at the LFS I prefer to go to, if I pull out a rock, it is nasty, The die off makes a smell like rotten eggs but not quite. I did this before I ordered the rock from SWF, so i would know if I needed to go scrub it before I put it into my tank. I did not detect any smells when it arrived, so I put it directly into my tank. If I were you, just to prevent any harm to the existing livestock, do as Beth suggested, move the live stock to a separate tank. You can probably get a used 10 or 20 gallon from your LFS pretty cheap. Use it for a month or so until you have no levels, then you can use it for a QT tank or a sump.