Hello & live rock curing question

[Kryten]

Hi folks. I just found the podcast which led me to these forums. I'm working my way though the podcasts. I've heard to first 20 or so. We are setting up a 65. I ordered 60 pounds of Lalo Tonga uncured rock for it from Liveaquaria. We plan to cure it in the tank we are using and use the curing to establish the nitrogen cycle.

I have read that we should leave the tank bare (i.e, no substrate) until the rock is cured. That seems somewhat odd to me as there will be nothing to seed for the critters that survive.

I had a FOWLR tank before but I have never dealt with uncured rock before. The basic procedure i've been given is to use a bucket of heavy salt mix (1.035-1.040) to evacuate critters from the rock and pick the ones I want to keep, then gently clean the rock and place it in the tank. Do weekly water changes of 50% and siphon out excess organic matter until ammonia and nitrite zero out.

Does this sound like a reasonable procedure? I'm tempted to put my substrate in at the same time as the rock. Is that a bad idea?

This tank is:

65 gal (36Lx18wx24T)
600 gph Hydor Koralia pump
1200 Wavemaker (3x400 gph Maxi Jets)
6ish inch crushed coral & sand substrate to settle to 4-5 inches
Emporer 400 till we get the sump
30-40 gal sump TBD


No critters yet, not even crawlies. want to eventually have a coral tank.

Rock scheduled to arrive today.

I've been looking through the pictures, you have some beautiful tanks.

Thx for your help.

[wakbrdfr]

I would put the substrate in the tank and get the tank going.

I would treat the live rock in buckets with saltwater srubbing the dead off as good as possible. You most likely will not get all dead matter from the rock and when placing into the system will help start the nitrogen cycle, of course testing will help see if the cycle is taking place.

Also good practice is to layout plastic sheets on the ground and have a spray bottle with saltwater in it. Take the rock and shake it and rotate it to get out some of the hitchhikers you dont want. The spray bottle is to keep the rock saturated with saltwater while doing this.

Hope this helps...

[wildeone]

Yes, put the substrate in, do some light scrubbing, put the LR in and wait for the cycle. Any bad critters inside will more than likely be found during the cycle at some point and can be removed. It will be like a large quarentine tank during the cycle.

[Ocelot199]

Do yourself a favor and try to get off as much crud before you put it in the tank. My sand bed is still kinda dirty from when I added my LR... it's very difficult to clean up.

[wakbrdfr]

Not saying your wrong by getting rid of all that junk, but if you are having the issue with the sand being filled with dirt, you might want to try a sandsifting starfish. My sand is pearly white. Not sure what you have in the tank? Hopefully it would be compatibale w/ what you have in their now.

[Ocelot199]

Yup, I've got one already. He does a decent job on keeping the sand clean, but he can't get super close to the rocks... and thats where it gets dirty. My hermit crabs are lame and don't clean the sand usually... they live in the rocks. You know of anything that'll pick up the detrius the SSSS (lol @ this acronym) can't get to?

[Danamck]

The reason for curing the rock without the sand bed is to make it easier to siphon out the ditrius and die off. This is what I would do. Then when the rock is fully cured, do one last siphon and add the sand (the sand should be added AFTER the rock is in place to make sure it is stable and not being held up by the sand - which is an accident waiting to happen.)

BTW - I cure my rock in a rubbermaid trash can in the garage. Just a warning: live rock that is curing smells very bad for a week or so. Not sure if you want to share this lovely smell with the rest of the house!

[Kryten]

ok thanks for all the good ideas. I really want to do it in the tank so I guess we will live with the smell till it cures. Guess I will leave to subsrate out at least untl most of the excess detris is gone.

[CarmieJo]

Hi Kryten,

:welcome: to TR. Out of curiosity, is there any special reason you'd like to cure your rock in the tank?

[Kryten]

I wanted to cure the rock in the tank because it's a new setup and I really wanted to watch the curing process. Also it seemed like a good way to cycle the tank.

The rock looks pretty good. It has several different colors of coralline algae on it. There was a big leather on one rock that was doa and we had to scrape it off. But there was a small soft coral alive on another rock and i'm still nursing it. It has small white hairs and a branching form. Here is a crude pic. Sorry about the quality, I have an old digital camera. http://magusmart.com/kryten/unk_coral.jpg

Ammonia levels have fallen and nitrite levels has spiked and are now falling. I saw a couple of anemone tentacles peaking out from rock the first night but nothing since. I've seen a couple small bristle worms. Other than that I haven't seen much life other than the aforementioned coral

[CarmieJo]

Sounds like you are well on your way! You will be amazed at how much life is in your live rock.