LR curing experiment

[maxalmon]

Thought it would be informative to do an experiment and see how long it takes to cure 100lb of LR. LR arrived a few days ago and has been soaking in the plastic tub. It was shipped "Semi-Cured" whatever that means

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I used a soaking process of leaving LR in SW for 3 days, changed the water, let it soak for another day, then scrubed it clean with a plastic brush and scraped off all bio-matter, then rinsed it in clean SW and then into the kiddie pool. As you can see from the plastic scrubbing tub, the LR was filthy. I'll track water quality and psot updates from time to time.
My next project is to take my wet tile saw and cutup a chunk of LR to see whats inside :thinking: . I'm going to try and do them in 1/4" thick slabs so you can see the veins and stuff inside the LR and post a series of photos.
Some of chunks are HUGE one of them is almost 18" long, most are about 12-14" and fairly flat

 

[moby]

Neat experiment.
I too use a kiddy pool to cure live rock, it seems to work very well and cuts the time by an average of a week. Although this is a relative term based on the type and how well it was precured (washed).
Most of the stuff is filthy and scrubbing is certainly necessary! This cuts down on the curing time also.
I have been toying with the idea of making a spraying system with the LR sitting out of the water on an eggcrate "shelf". I know alot of the sites do this now and it intriques me as to whether or not there is some advantage.
Keep us posted and the next time I get some to cure I think I'll try the spray method and let everyone know if it works better.
Moby

 

[maxalmon]

Moby, I had thought about doing the eggcrate drip process, the reason they do this is to remove any unwanted critters. I was actually going to use those plastic, stackable file holders. These things are perfect, there slotted on the bottom and you can stack them as high as you want. My idea was to load up the file holders, stack them about 4 high with the bottom one empty (so that when all the critters are washed out they have no place to hide or burrow into, place this stack in the middle of the kddie pool, this is odd, but made sense, wrap the whole thing in saran wrap to minimize splashing, then run a spray bar to the top of the stack and let it spray for a 24-48 hours. Then you can collect all the critters in the bottom of the kiddie pool, keeping the ones you want. I still may do this procedure, I was just short on time today.

 

[maxalmon]

Just finished the first water test, this just goes to show how toxic new LR can be. This is fresh SW mixed up yesterday, LR was added to this new water about 2 hours ago.
Test results
Tropic Marine PRO salt
PH 7.8
CA 520
AM 1.0
Trates 5.0
Trites .50
Temp 78
I dosed with Kent CA to raise levels

 

[moby]

Wow, that stuff is toxic! And this water is only 2 hours old!?!?
I've never tested the water for anything other then ammonia. Neat to know!
wrap the whole thing in saran wrap to minimize splashing, then run a spray bar to the top of the stack and let it spray for a 24-48 hours. Then you can collect all the critters in the bottom of the kiddie pool, keeping the ones you want. I still may do this
I was thinking old shower curtain on a small suspended ring. The file folder idea sounds interesting and your right that would "shake out" all the unwanted hitch hikers.

Moby

 

[maxalmon]

Went ahead and added 20lb of LS to the pool, figured it will help with the PH and when i'm done curing the LR I'll have some cured LS as well

 

[maxalmon]

Part of this experiment was also to test how effective, or to test the claim of the live bacteria in the bag. I added the 20lb bag of Aragalive LS around 5pm yesterday, just retested the water today and found some interesting changes
Yesterday - Today
CA 520 / 520
AM 1.0 / .25
PH 7.8 / 7.8
Trates 5.0 / 1.0
Trites .50 / 2.0
All test were performed twice with equal results. I can only assume that the claims of the bacteria content are true based on the above facts.

 

[am3gross]

very interesting!

 

[maxalmon]

Trites continue steady rise. The LS really did nothing for the PH, not sure if I'm going to do anything about it and maybe give it a few days.
..........10th.........11th......12th
CA......520..........520.......520
AM.......1.0.........0.25......0.25
PH.......7.8...........7.8.......7.8
Trates..5.0...........1.0.......1.0
Trites....50...........2.0.......5.0