I’ll stick the rock in the display once I have zero ammonia reading in the bin, should only be a couple more days.Did it look similar when it was submerged during the curing process? It really does seem like some sort of leather that would expand/open up if happy. A lot of leathers look vaguely like that when very unhappy, and it's likely been unhappy through this entire process. They're also pretty unkillable.
Also I totally get not wanting to go through a bunch of die off and ammonia directly in the tank. I am curious if the main reason to buy aussie live rock and treat it this way is the desire for the particular shape of the rock or the few living things that hitchhike in on it that are able to live through curing? Or is it a porosity thing? I guess I'm asking are things like these incredibly hardy hitchhikers the reason to go for this rock in your opinion or is it the rock itself that you think is worth the much higher price tag vs cured dry rock?
So the reason I wanted to find some non-cultured live rock is due to a thread I read in this very forum.
Establishing a Healthy Microbiome in a New Aquarium Using Live Rock
Studying the effects of live rock in a newly established aquarium shows that high-quality live rock promotes the rapid establishment of an effective biological filter and a microbial community similar to those found in mature reef tanks.
www.reef2reef.com
The rock I am curing would be considered “live-b” from this write up.
In the past we all started our tanks with ocean live rock (not “cultured” as they call it “live-a”). I wanted to inject my aquarium with additional beneficial bacteria that is not available in a bottle. This current tank is only about 13 months old, started with man made dry rock.
Read that write up. Good info.