Curing live rock

ajhudson15

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I recently just bought about 120lbs of what was dry rock from someone whose tank had crashed. I brought it home and bleached it for 2 days. I plan on putting it in a vinegar solution for another 2 days. What I would like to do after the vinegar is to mix up saltwater and put the rock in it with a heater and powerhead and start to dose bacteria. My tank I currently have has been up for almost a year and im just going to replace the rock in it. I want the rock I am currently bleaching to be established with some bacteria first. What is the best thing to put in the saltwater with it to start the culture.
 

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I put in a bacteria in a bottle, pellet or flake food, an air stone and let it boil for 2 weeks. Sometimes if the culture gets too stinky I do a small water change. Works everytime.
 
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ajhudson15

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I was hoping if I use live rock that ive had for a few years plus a bottle of something it would be ready in a few days to a week.
 

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Interestingly you mention CURE in the title of this, but really only talk CYCLE in the actual post. Simply put, curing is getting the old dead biology out of the rock, and cycling is putting new live biology back into the rock. It seems today too many are skipping the cure part and not believing it's necessary. I've actually been beaten up with comments in posts that it's not necessary. I hear comments like, "It doesn't need to be done," "It's XYZ brand of rock and does't need it,""It's pre-cured," etc. As far as I'm concerned, these are the folks that post two months later and want to know what to do about a terrible algae or cyano problem....and why are my nitrates and phosphates through the roof. I also think in some cases it's our impetuous youth...and I can say that because I'm a grumpy old man. :eek:

Now dry rock has varying amounts of old death within, and because of that some rock cures faster than others. What needs to be done for curing is letting the rock sit in water with a little flow (if done indoors, no heater needed...and no light), and simply allow the old death to decay and leach out. Bleaching helps in this process in that it jump starts the hydrolysis of the dead stuff. (BRS did a "TV" spot on this HERE) What you do, while your rock is curing, is to monitor nitrates (and phosphates). You can test for both, but I usually just do nitrates with an occasional phosphate. You should see it climb pretty fast. When it gets high (and I'll say about a week), do a water change....100% water changes is just fine. Again, let it soak....monitor...do a water change (for the sake of argument, week two). Usually this first and sometimes the second week are pretty stinky.....you've been warned. Continue to monitor and do water changes as needed. You will eventually see N and P level off and start to decline....the end is getting near.

Now curing and cycling can occur concurrently. I would not recommend starting the cycle until after a number of water changes...especially the first two or three. A fast cure is about a month, but more typically (especially if "dirty" rock), more like two months.


Now I'm in the process of starting a cure right now. I'm going to try something new (for me anyway). The first two (and maybe three) water changes are going to be RO/DI water only. After which I'll change over to saltwater.
 
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ajhudson15

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Interestingly you mention CURE in the title of this, but really only talk CYCLE in the actual post. Simply put, curing is getting the old dead biology out of the rock, and cycling is putting new live biology back into the rock. It seems today too many are skipping the cure part and not believing it's necessary. I've actually been beaten up with comments in posts that it's not necessary. I hear comments like, "It doesn't need to be done," "It's XYZ brand of rock and does't need it,""It's pre-cured," etc. As far as I'm concerned, these are the folks that post two months later and want to know what to do about a terrible algae or cyano problem....and why are my nitrates and phosphates through the roof. I also think in some cases it's our impetuous youth...and I can say that because I'm a grumpy old man. :eek:

Now dry rock has varying amounts of old death within, and because of that some rock cures faster than others. What needs to be done for curing is letting the rock sit in water with a little flow (if done indoors, no heater needed...and no light), and simply allow the old death to decay and leach out. Bleaching helps in this process in that it jump starts the hydrolysis of the dead stuff. (BRS did a "TV" spot on this HERE) What you do, while your rock is curing, is to monitor nitrates (and phosphates). You can test for both, but I usually just do nitrates with an occasional phosphate. You should see it climb pretty fast. When it gets high (and I'll say about a week), do a water change....100% water changes is just fine. Again, let it soak....monitor...do a water change (for the sake of argument, week two). Usually this first and sometimes the second week are pretty stinky.....you've been warned. Continue to monitor and do water changes as needed. You will eventually see N and P level off and start to decline....the end is getting near.

Now curing and cycling can occur concurrently. I would not recommend starting the cycle until after a number of water changes...especially the first two or three. A fast cure is about a month, but more typically (especially if "dirty" rock), more like two months.


Now I'm in the process of starting a cure right now. I'm going to try something new (for me anyway). The first two (and maybe three) water changes are going to be RO/DI water only. After which I'll change over to saltwater.

But I did say I was curing it with bleach. I know what the curing process is. This rock was still wet from the seller so im not sure a whole month curing time is required but I will definitely keep an eye on the tests and make sure its good before I ever put it into my tank. Sorry for the name of the title I guess I was just referring to the whole process in general including the cycling. Thanks for the info though.
 

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Now I'm in the process of starting a cure right now. I'm going to try something new (for me anyway). The first two (and maybe three) water changes are going to be RO/DI water only. After which I'll change over to saltwater.
@redfishbluefish Are you going to start with rodi or just replace SW with RoDI like Hyposalinity kinda thing. Because I did the bleach for a week and then a bath of Rodi for a few days and monitored Ammonia and chlorine but also nitrates for gigs and saw no Flux in nitrate until it was a few days in saltwater. Fwiw
 
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Are you going to start with rodi or just replace SW with RoDI like Hyposalinity kinda thing. Because I did the bleach for a week and then a bath of Rodi for a few days and monitored Ammonia and chlorine but also nitrates for gigs and saw no Flux in nitrate until it was a few days in saltwater. Fwiw
I plan on bleaching for a few days. Vinegar and rodi for a few days to help neutralize the bleach ( thought about using prime instead) and then do a rodi quick bath. Then move onto a saltwater solution with a heater and powerhead and use my live rock and possibly dose bacteria to kick start the bacteria culture so that rock will be ready a little quicker.
 

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I plan on bleaching for a few days. Vinegar and rodi for a few days to help neutralize the bleach ( thought about using prime instead) and then do a rodi quick bath. Then move onto a saltwater solution with a heater and powerhead and use my live rock and possibly dose bacteria to kick start the bacteria culture so that rock will be ready a little quicker.
Do you have a way of testing for chlorine because I used a chlorine/ammonia remover not sure if prime removes chlorine but I let it soak in rodi for a few days after bleach. then I removed all the water, let the rock drain for a day or two and then filled my brute trash can back up w/rodi and added the chlorine remover allowed the rock to soak for a day or two(test) then I pulled it out and dried it for a week. Added to my new tank added live sand and bio spira. After a day I added my favorite clown fish and in 3-5 days I was done. Nitrates never went past 10ppm and if they did they leveled off quick (api test kit) I tested twice a day. But since adding a fish isn’t an option for you I would advise adding fish food or pure ammonia to feed your bacteria in a bottle.and TEST! If you have live rock to spare then you don’t need bacteria in a bottle you just need time to seed the new rock with your old rock but of course test to know when it’s ready or you’ll throw your DT threw a loop of imbalances
 

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RedFish/ Bluefish +1, if you got this rock from a tank that crashed, what caused the crash?
If your bleaching, power washing, or Sun drying this rock you should. After you have killed everything, check out the BRS video concerning curing Dry/Live Rock. I bought rock from BRS, cured it for 7-8 weeks in a garbage pail with just old water from a WC. Add a circulation pump, cover well, no light whatsoever. Add heat if your curing water gets below 65 degrees. I do WC’s every 2 weeks, and replace the old cured water entirely with the WC water from the DT. After 7-8 weeks, and picking out dead stuff from the rock, the rock was put into the DT. Within 3-4 weeks, the cured rock was covering with Coraline. I wouldn’t take the chance. Curing rock is easy! Just takes time! Don’t rush!
If you use the WC water from your current tank, you won’t need to add anything
 
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I understand curing rock from companies for 7-8 weeks since they can leach chemicals and they haven't been live for a long time. The rock I have was still wet and was live. So im not entirely sure that a 7-8 week cure time is required since it shouldn't be leaching a a lot of chmicals. I plan on using water change water from my dt to do water changes on the rock so that should help with seeding as well as the live rock I put in with it.
 
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ajhudson15

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side note. would it be beneficial to go the route im doing being that it is a little quicker and maybe send in a water test before I put it in to make sure there isn't any leaching coming off that I cant/don't test for
 

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Interestingly you mention CURE in the title of this, but really only talk CYCLE in the actual post. Simply put, curing is getting the old dead biology out of the rock, and cycling is putting new live biology back into the rock. It seems today too many are skipping the cure part and not believing it's necessary. I've actually been beaten up with comments in posts that it's not necessary. I hear comments like, "It doesn't need to be done," "It's XYZ brand of rock and does't need it,""It's pre-cured," etc. As far as I'm concerned, these are the folks that post two months later and want to know what to do about a terrible algae or cyano problem....and why are my nitrates and phosphates through the roof. I also think in some cases it's our impetuous youth...and I can say that because I'm a grumpy old man. :eek:

Now dry rock has varying amounts of old death within, and because of that some rock cures faster than others. What needs to be done for curing is letting the rock sit in water with a little flow (if done indoors, no heater needed...and no light), and simply allow the old death to decay and leach out. Bleaching helps in this process in that it jump starts the hydrolysis of the dead stuff. (BRS did a "TV" spot on this HERE) What you do, while your rock is curing, is to monitor nitrates (and phosphates). You can test for both, but I usually just do nitrates with an occasional phosphate. You should see it climb pretty fast. When it gets high (and I'll say about a week), do a water change....100% water changes is just fine. Again, let it soak....monitor...do a water change (for the sake of argument, week two). Usually this first and sometimes the second week are pretty stinky.....you've been warned. Continue to monitor and do water changes as needed. You will eventually see N and P level off and start to decline....the end is getting near.

Now curing and cycling can occur concurrently. I would not recommend starting the cycle until after a number of water changes...especially the first two or three. A fast cure is about a month, but more typically (especially if "dirty" rock), more like two months.


Now I'm in the process of starting a cure right now. I'm going to try something new (for me anyway). The first two (and maybe three) water changes are going to be RO/DI water only. After which I'll change over to saltwater.
I really like this idea, Do you have a thread about this? If not Id love it if you could pm me your experience with this as it goes on :)
 

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I put mine in fresh saltwater in a brute trash container with heater and circulation pump and let the cycle happen. It took about a month or so and was fun to test and watch the cycle happen.
 

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