Curing dry rock question

[fogcutter]

Hey gang,

I'm about 3 weeks from getting my tank wet. Bought some Marco's dry rock and have been curing it for about 3 weeks now with a couple of dry pieces from my LFS. My question is, should I be able to take the rock out now and let it sit until it's ready to go into the tank? There's no reason to move it directly from the curing tub directly into the tank right?

 

[DarkTang]

What do you mean remove it? Don’t let it dry up. You want to drain the entire tub and add new saltwater and bacteria to soak the rock in it to make it “live”. This will also help leech out any phosphates on the rocks as well.

 

[cracker]

Hello, I'd say leave it in the water. If you pull it now ,in 3 weeks all bacteria that grew will die & tou will have basically dry rock again. Just my opinion . I,m also wanting to cure some dry rock & would like to know the proper steps. I'm tagging along to hear what others say . YA & good luck with the new tank!

 

[fogcutter]

ok...that's the answer I was looking for...I've done a water change a few times. I'll keep the pump and heater going till i'm ready. I was contemplating taking them out to do my aquascaping.

 

[DarkTang]

ok...that's the answer I was looking for...I've done a water change a few times. I'll keep the pump and heater going till i'm ready. I was contemplating taking them out to do my aquascaping.

You can still do your aquascape. The rocks can be out of water for a couple of hours and still be good. Just spend time doing your aquascape and fill up the tank.

 

[fogcutter]

You can still do your aquascape. The rocks can be out of water for a couple of hours and still be good. Just spend time doing your aquascape and fill up the tank.

Thanks. The reason for my question is because this was dry (man-made) rock and not live. I thought that might make a difference. Cheers!

 

[Sarah24!]

Hello,

@cracker (quickly how have you been have missed you) in terms to @cracker and @fogcutter I highly suggest from experience that you use all live rock. I used half dry and half live rock when I started my 125 and had alagae problems like no other.

When I started my 240 I used the live rock from my 125 plus another 100 pounds (200 total) of new live rock. Now with the rock that I had I kept it in a 50 gallon trash rubber can. I didn’t heat it, but kept it blacked out for 6 months. Make sure you keep the water flowing, and swap some of the water out. The biggest thing is to keep the container dark, you want bacteria to grow but if you give it light it will start to bloom.

If you put dry rock in with live rock you will have alage spikes, and bloom spikes through out. Even others have said, that starting with dry rock has led to more problems than its worth. If you wanna buy dry rock to save money, by all means. But then cure it for about 3 months or longer by keeping it dark and adding bacteria to it.

This time around I have had little to zero algae probelms because of this and very little spikes. It’s worth the wait to make sure it’s all cured and has critters growing on it. Now with that said you will still go through the three ugly stages but that’s normal. It’s after that period that actually matters,
Since we want our tanks to be as stable as possible. You can add the stuff to make it live etc, I didn’t and it was fine, but it’s personal choice.

Another good thing to do is when your tank is ready, rinse each rock in fresh salt water In a bucket. If it gets kinda dirty from the rocks then empty it and fill again with clean saltwater. This will knock off the dietrust, and will see if you have any hitch hikers trying to sneek in. The rock should be fine out of the water for maybe three hours.

Once you fill the tank up, it will be cloudy but make sure you have the filter socks on, and micro filter pads. This will help trap any other nasties before it goes back Into the water column. I do suggest you keep the lights off for a few days, and use live sand as well. Once the tank clears them start the cycling process with your lights etc. I would suggest a good 6 weeks to cycle then add clean up crew. Then after testing and maybe another 3 weeks you could start with fish etc. I waited 90 days for coral, but that was my personal preference. I’m sure you probably could do sooner, but again it was something I chose to do.

Cheers
Sarah

 

[cracker]

Hello,

@cracker (quickly how have you been have missed you) in terms to @cracker and @fogcutter I highly suggest from experience that you use all live rock. I used half dry and half live rock when I started my 125 and had alagae problems like no other.

When I started my 240 I used the live rock from my 125 plus another 100 pounds (200 total) of new live rock. Now with the rock that I had I kept it in a 50 gallon trash rubber can. I didn’t heat it, but kept it blacked out for 6 months. Make sure you keep the water flowing, and swap some of the water out. The biggest thing is to keep the container dark, you want bacteria to grow but if you give it light it will start to bloom.

If you put dry rock in with live rock you will have alage spikes, and bloom spikes through out. Even others have said, that starting with dry rock has led to more problems than its worth. If you wanna buy dry rock to save money, by all means. But then cure it for about 3 months or longer by keeping it dark and adding bacteria to it.

This time around I have had little to zero algae probelms because of this and very little spikes. It’s worth the wait to make sure it’s all cured and has critters growing on it. Now with that said you will still go through the three ugly stages but that’s normal. It’s after that period that actually matters,
Since we want our tanks to be as stable as possible. You can add the stuff to make it live etc, I didn’t and it was fine, but it’s personal choice.

Another good thing to do is when your tank is ready, rinse each rock in fresh salt water In a bucket. If it gets kinda dirty from the rocks then empty it and fill again with clean saltwater. This will knock off the dietrust, and will see if you have any hitch hikers trying to sneek in. The rock should be fine out of the water for maybe three hours.

Once you fill the tank up, it will be cloudy but make sure you have the filter socks on, and micro filter pads. This will help trap any other nasties before it goes back Into the water column. I do suggest you keep the lights off for a few days, and use live sand as well. Once the tank clears them start the cycling process with your lights etc. I would suggest a good 6 weeks to cycle then add clean up crew. Then after testing and maybe another 3 weeks you could start with fish etc. I waited 90 days for coral, but that was my personal preference. I’m sure you probably could do sooner, but again it was something I chose to do.

Cheers
Sarah[/QUO
Thanks for the good advice. I too have had algae issues with dry base . I have 2 rocks in the 75 that look like aquatic Chia Pets ! I want to replace these 2 rocks. I have 2 pieces that need to be cured/cooked like You describe.
. Maybe I'll look for some live rock. Sarah did you get you LR from an LFS or order it from dealer?

 

[Sarah24!]

Hello;

Lol @cracker you um forgot your message lol well I think at least.

 

[fogcutter]

Thanks for the advice Sarah. Now to sound like a hippie....but i'm really trying to stay on the sustainable route. I might end up using one piece of LR to seed but I'm really trying to avoid it this time around. I'll roll the dice with the dry rock and deal with anything that blooms. Definitely going to follow your instructions for the cycling...thanks!

 

[Sarah24!]

Thanks for the advice Sarah. Now to sound like a hippie....but i'm really trying to stay on the sustainable route. I might end up using one piece of LR to seed but I'm really trying to avoid it this time around. I'll roll the dice with the dry rock and deal with anything that blooms. Definitely going to follow your instructions for the cycling...thanks!

Hello,

What type of corals do you plan on keeping? If anything I highly highly suggest you run a really good uv sterilizer and or two of them. The dry rock down the road after the tank cycles will leach and you will have constant problems with parameters and algae. If you wanna seed like you mentioned instead of putting the dry rock in your tank, through it in the dark bin, with one nice thriving live rock. Then let it cure for 2-3 months off of that one rock. But again I would not put just dry rock in your display tank especially if your going to keep sps.

 

[cracker]

@Sarah24! I noticed that ! DUHH!
Any way I too have had bad issues with dry rock & algae . I have 2 pieces of dry base in the 75 that look like aquatic Chia Pets & want to replace . That's why I want to cure several rocks I have in storage . Maybe I'll look for some Live rock. You say you cured/cooked your rock for 6 months. I have for over 11 months 2 weeks before nutrient levels droped to my liking. just these 2 rocks are seriously ticking me off !

 

[Sarah24!]

@Sarah24! I noticed that ! DUHH!
Any way I too have had bad issues with dry rock & algae . I have 2 pieces of dry base in the 75 that look like aquatic Chia Pets & want to replace . That's why I want to cure several rocks I have in storage . Maybe I'll look for some Live rock. You say you cured/cooked your rock for 6 months. I have for over 11 months 2 weeks before nutrient levels droped to my liking. just these 2 rocks are seriously ******* me off !

@cracker lol I’m sooo sorry you just make me laugh (not at your situation but how you word it). So here is an idea for both of you. Now I can not promise this will work but worth a shot. If you have local aquariums they have lots of dry rock live rock etc. A suggestion like I did was that my old rock that was full of algae etc I traded to them for dry rock.

I didn’t want to boil it and or whatever, but they have use for that kind of rock for other tanks that are not display tanks and need it. They gave me more dry rock than my one live rocks. I then cured the dry rocks in my garbage bin while seeding it with one of my normal live rocks that I kept. If you have rocks that are covered in alagae, I don’t suggest placing them back in the tank. It will regrow and spread and back to square one. I would see if the aquarium would trade you for some dry rock. Mine had also traded for normal live rock also. Most lfs won’t because they don’t want this problem either, but aquariums do for huge huge tanks that they need it for.

You could boil the rock however, my suggestion is to get a crab pot, and maybe do it on a bbq outside or aka beach fire. To many chances with it possibly releasing palytoxins. Some have used vibrance when curing dry rock. But I have always seen issues with dry rock even after the tank has cycled. I highly don’t suggest that route.

 

[jda]

Now to sound like a hippie....but i'm really trying to stay on the sustainable route.

Factor in lots of GFO or other phosphate remover, extra water changes and extra effort and you might find that dry rock is not all that sustainable either... sure it is not from a reef, but shipping and all of these extra resources for you to get it to live status is not free either. All rock is different, but it could take you a year or two to get it to where you need it to be - one of my local friends used 2 5g buckets of GFO to get his 80 pounds down to reasonable phosphate levels. It all sounds great to "save a reef" but people oft forget that other things that they do have impacts too.

 

[cracker]

+1 JDA good fresh liverock from the sea is by far the best .

 

[Sarah24!]

Hello,

@cracker thst is also something some or most aquariums may have as well. Now in Idaho they do it the hard way, but when I was at University of Washington they used live ocean rock there and same with Monterey in Cali and a few in Florida did as well.

Their process I’m not certain on, but I know at school we used four or five pieces to seed all the other dry rock. Ocean rock is by far the best, but I think one needs permits now or not even sure one is allowed to take it anymore.

 

[jda]

You can only get real live rock from Florida right now - they put farmed rock into the ocean where the phosphates unbind into the open water and the rock gets covered in stuff from the ocean. Indo should have some coming in soon, but it has been promised since summer of 2018 and nobody has seen any yet... so who knows. I need some more, but I will wait until some Pacific rock is available again.

 

[TX_Punisher]

I would be seeding that rock with rubble from other trusted sources and/or seeded with a cup of live sand from
An established tank. Mine has been set up 1.5 years and is starting to look right. Now I’m battling bubble algae!

 

[cracker]

So true about being illegal , here in Florida it is strictly forbidden ! there are several places that have leases for growing live rock TBS for one . They have been around for a long time. it's expensive though.

 

[Sarah24!]

Hello,

I am not sure when shops etc will sell live ocean rock again and I keep hearing it but so far no word on it. Spoke to the local aquarium here about 20 min ago, and they said they would be happy to loan a piece of good live rock and or sand. Other aquariums or schools may have special permits to obtain ocean rock. However when I took advantage of this it was only one or two pieces and because they are non profit, we did the rock exchange. The idea is nkce because of their tanks crash those they have helped have some of the orgininal seed in their tanks. It would still be a good idea to check.

I have had some very small small amount of bubble algae and luckily never on a primary rock. I have always take the rock or coral or if not encrusted and pulled the bubble algae off with medical forceps. I also then scrape it with a scalpel to make sure I get all of it. If you do remove it inside your tank do not drop any and make sure you don’t rupture the bubbles.