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Curing live rock (1 Viewer)

Jucksta

Jucksta

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 26, 2010
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350
Location
Carver, MN
I have been curing some dry rock for at least 3 months now. It has been in a 5 gallon bucket w/ a heater and a powerhead, originally seeded with a half-fist sized piece of established live rock.

About once a week, sometimes once every 2 weeks, I would empty out about a gallon and replace it with fresh water.

I'm a bit hesitant in adding it to my tank since this is my first time curing rock myself.

I've done the odor test, currently no odor... are there any other tests?

Any experienced members have an opinion on whether it is safe to add a few rocks to my tank?
 
Test ammonia nitrite and nitrate.
 
+1. When I cured my 30# I had in a 10g. I did weekly 10g wc's and it took about 4-5 weeks before I was confident to add it. I did 5-10# ever 4-5 days to be on the safe side.
 
Youch. Nitrates were super high, Ammonia was about .25 ppm and nitrites around .1.

I guess it needs to cook for a bit longer. I'm going to have to pay attention to regular water changes.
 
I've just retrieved my 48 gallon tank and have half a mind to turn in into a really big container for curing rock. Unfortunately it's not reef ready and i'm not all that interested in adding any more money into that set up. Instead I'll be posting in in the for sale section. It would be an interesting idea though... a dedicated system for curing live rock like LFS have.
 
Jucksta said:
I've just retrieved my 48 gallon tank and have half a mind to turn in into a really big container for curing rock. Unfortunately it's not reef ready and i'm not all that interested in adding any more money into that set up. Instead I'll be posting in in the for sale section. It would be an interesting idea though... a dedicated system for curing live rock like LFS have.
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a few people do just that, some cycle their rock out of their tank some do it just as added filtration to the tank... some people im not exactly sure why they are doing it because its isolated from the tank and the rock has been sitting in the water for years lol.
 
Ok I'm still pretty new to the SW hobby. Why would you want to cure your own LR? Is it strictly to save money or is there another benefit to it? It seems all the extra time and effort required to cure your own wouldn't out weigh the cost of going out and buying what you need plus you would have it right away rather then a long drawn out process. To me there's a tipping point between saving money and saving time. This, as I currently understand it, is too much time and effort to save a couple bucks. Do you plan on selling it after the cure or is it simply for personal use?

It's a question I've had since beginning this hobby.
 
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In my view, the reasons to cure your own rock is to save as much life on the rock as possible. And to save a buck.

In my experience, the exact opposite happens. No amount of filtration can keep up with live rock curing, it's 100% water changes every few days and that's it. Spend more money and time screwing up (my experience). Do the other guys really do a better job than you or I, I doubt it but it just made a mess at their place not ours.

If your are willing to commit the time and resources to do it right, the result can provide years of fun watching all the little "things" grow out.
 
Palimow said:
Ok I'm still pretty new to the SW hobby. Why would you want to cure your own LR? Is it strictly to save money or is there another benefit to it? It seems all the extra time and effort required to cure your own wouldn't out weigh the cost of going out and buying what you need plus you would have it right away rather then a long drawn out process. To me there's a tipping point between saving money and saving time. This, as I currently understand it, is too much time and effort to save a couple bucks. Do you plan on selling it after the cure or is it simply for personal use?

It's a question I've had since beginning this hobby.
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Keep in mind, curring Live Rock and curing Dry rock are two different things.

curring Live Rock likely means you got rock transhipped from the ocean and there is some dead and some live. It's not really much quicker becuase there is still considerable die off and you can't use it right away. To keep the live part from dying, yes really big water changes otherwise it's just going to die too. Now if you buy locally and not transhipped it could be as easy as plug and play.

Now curing dead rock, there is nothing alive to attempt to preserve so not near the care has to be taken. Several possible reasons for choosing this route, 1. Attempt to be environmentally friendly using rock that was dug up vs. robbing from the ocean. 2. With LR, who knows what pests it may be harboring. Mantis shrimp, wierd algaes that are hard to find animals that will eat it, etc. etc. 3. You can drill, glue, putty or whatever method to aquascape while the tank and rock are dry so you can take as long as you want to get it the way you like it. 4. Chances are though you are right the main reason would be initial cost.
 
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Great question Palimow. Made me think about about what I'm doing and if it makes sense.

+1 to everything David just said. I had not really considered his 3rd point since I really don't drill/glue/putty but stack (and find it very frustrating)

Another point similar to it though is you give yourself a better selection. Through BRS there are various types of dry rock you can start with. I've found live rock at LFSs to be limited, not very porous or interesting and just big, expensive lumps. I've also introduced "premium" supposed fully-cured live rock from the LFS that also brought in several types of annoyances (including the plague of bryopsis I'm still fighting) and spikes in my nitrite/nitrate/ammonia level. And I paid extra for that?

Granted there is the time factor clearly, but the cost saving, I feel, is significant... but not my main motivation.
 
Well that makes a lot more sense now. Thank you David for breaking it down for me. Sorry if I kind of hijacked your thread Jucksta but I read it and thought I should ask before I forget again :). Hope it goes well for ya and I may be asking for more info from ya in the future!
 
When people say they are giving their rock an acid wash, what type of acid are they using and where do you get it?
 
Jucksta said:
When people say they are giving their rock an acid wash, what type of acid are they using and where do you get it?
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Muriatic acid at HomeDepot. mixing about 10 to 1 ratio and let your rocks in the solution until the bubbling stops. You could presure wash or scrubbing and dry. (Remember hands and eyes protection)

You could use vinygars, but this cost more.
 
Acid washed a bunch of dry rock and started arranging it in the tank. The smell the next day was pretty bad. I did a 2nd wash on every piece tonight and was amazed at how much more gunk I got off this batch.

My first was was with "green" or eco-friendly muriatic, this one just regular destroy-the-planet type I guess.

One thing I noticed was how much more detail (for lack of a better term) I could see in the rock, as well as many more sharp edges, making it harder to handle without gloves.

On my 2nd batch tonight, I walked out to see the massive pile of gunk and just thought how lucky I am not to have that going into my tank.
 
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