Curing live rock

Wilkerson.reed · Apr 18, 2016

I have been curing Fiji live rock for about 2 months now... I have it in a 5 gallon bucket with a heater and a powerhead. I just tested the water in the bucket and the nitrite is at 0 nitrate is at about 5 maybe and ammonia I couldn't tell exactly but it was either 0 or between 0 and 0.1 ppm. The levels above 0 could be from the water in the bucket before I did a 100 % water change though... Because I didn't dry the heater, powerhead or rocks before I put clean water back in the bucket so the levels could have been from last time... Anyways, my question is, is it time to move the rock from the bucket to my tank? Do you just move it or do you have to dry it before you put it in your display tank?

ndz98 · Apr 18, 2016

Wilkerson.reed said:
I have been curing Fiji live rock for about 2 months now... I have it in a 5 gallon bucket with a heater and a powerhead. I just tested the water in the bucket and the nitrite is at 0 nitrate is at about 5 maybe and ammonia I couldn't tell exactly but it was either 0 or between 0 and 0.1 ppm. The levels above 0 could be from the water in the bucket before I did a 100 % water change though... Because I didn't dry the heater, powerhead or rocks before I put clean water back in the bucket so the levels could have been from last time... Anyways, my question is, is it time to move the rock from the bucket to my tank? Do you just move it or do you have to dry it before you put it in your display tank?

What test kit are you using? How big is your tank? Is there anything in it yet? Yes you just move the rock from the bucket to your tank but I would test your levels the day after to see what they look like. I'd say after two months of curing you should be good to go.

Wilkerson.reed · Apr 18, 2016

ndz98 said:
What test kit are you using? How big is your tank? Is there anything in it yet? Yes you just move the rock from the bucket to your tank but I would test your levels the day after to see what they look like. I'd say after two months of curing you should be good to go.

It was an API test kit so it wasn't exact and it was difficult to tell on ammonia if it was yellow or if it had green at all in it... My tank is a 36 gallon and has been running for almost 2 years now and it has fish and inverts in it. And thanks for the reply btw!

ndz98 · Apr 18, 2016

Yea I'm sure it will be fine to go ahead and put the rocks in your tank. Those readings might be off a little bit and as you said hard to read. And no problem :)

Wilkerson.reed · Apr 18, 2016

I'm not very good at aquascaping... My rocks look like just big piles of rock and not in a good way but I added the rock to my tank. It looks weird also because my other rocks had coralline and these don't. Another thing sorry, but moving these rocks made the sand stir up a little bit. My tanks a mess also so don't mind that either but here's a pic...

ImageUploadedByREEF2REEF1461031663.653486.jpg

I tried to make an arch and the first time I put t in the tank it looked perfect but I knocked it over by accident and couldn't figure out how I had it so now everything looks kind of bad. But the good news is that I have more rock in my tank.