Curing Marco Rock in Bucket

[NeutronMan]

Hi all,

Has anyone tried curing Marco rock (or any dry rock) in a bucket with existing live rock? My goal wouldn’t necessarily be a diy TBS live rock (or similar) but just a way to prevent this from becoming the new hottest place in the tank for nuisance algae to grow.

I figure that the rock would eventually become covered in good bacteria and whatnot so it can be used in the main tank display.

Every time I’ve ever placed dry rock in my tank it immediately gets covered in bryopsis, hair algae, cyano, Dino’s, ect.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Sure, its a fine plan, I do it all the time in anticipation of new projects. I would suggest a powerhead, maybe a heater too if your place is cool, feed a pinch of fish flakes once a week and it should be good. I even add a damsel in my 'cooking buckets', I use plastic totes actually. IME 3 months will avoid any algae growth whatsoever. Good luck

 

[NeutronMan]

Sure, its a fine plan, I do it all the time in anticipation of new projects. I would suggest a powerhead, maybe a heater too if your place is cool, feed a pinch of fish flakes once a week and it should be good. I even add a damsel in my 'cooking buckets', I use plastic totes actually. IME 3 months will avoid any algae growth whatsoever. Good luck

I’ve got it circulating in a bucket with some small pieces of TBS live rock now. Should I add a little ammonia to keep the bacteria alive? Any other suggestions or ideas?

 

[Fish Fan]

I’ve got it circulating in a bucket with some small pieces of TBS live rock now. Should I add a little ammonia to keep the bacteria alive? Any other suggestions or ideas?

Add some fish food too, the bacteria benefit from the phosphate released by fish food in addition to the ammonia. But you've got a solid plan for sure, people do similar all the time

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

I would get something bigger than a bucket. One of those 27 gallon totes should work fine and you'd have a lid to keep stuff from getting in the curing chamber.

 

[NeutronMan]

I would get something bigger than a bucket. One of those 27 gallon totes should work fine and you'd have a lid to keep stuff from getting in the curing chamber.

Any particular reason? So far the rock seems happy in the bucket with lid on and pump circulating.

 

[NeutronMan]

Add some fish food too, the bacteria benefit from the phosphate released by fish food in addition to the ammonia. But you've got a solid plan for sure, people do similar all the time

I wonder if I’d be asking for trouble by adding an LED light with the hopes of growing coralline over it as well?

 

[Fish Fan]

I wonder if I’d be asking for trouble by adding an LED light with the hopes of growing coralline over it as well?

Yes, coralline comes months down the road when a tank matures and stabilizes. If you light the bucket now, you'll just grow ugly algae

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Any particular reason? So far the rock seems happy in the bucket with lid on and pump circulating.

In my mind more water and space = more room for the rocks to spread out and it's easier to take a look at them without taking them out of the water. You can also do a lot more at once but I reckon if you're only doing one rock at a time or a few small rocks a bucket is fine.

 

[NeutronMan]

In my mind more water and space = more room for the rocks to spread out and it's easier to take a look at them without taking them out of the water. You can also do a lot more at once but I reckon if you're only doing one rock at a time or a few small rocks a bucket is fine.

Gotcha. Definitely will use a larger container for my next build if this turns out to work well.

 

[NeutronMan]

While busy moving, I found a bucket of live rock that I had forgotten about for 6 months. It was sitting in salt water without any circulation but temperature maintained. Thinking it was totally rotten, I gave it a sniff and found that it doesn’t smell at all. The rocks still look like they did when they went in minus all the nuisance algae they had been infested with.

I’ve got these in a new bucket of salt water and a pump circulating the water. Could they still be good? There’s still purple coralline algae on the rocks…

 

[fishface NJ]

do a test of NH3, PO4 and NO3

 

[BriDroid]

I “cooked” mine in a Brute in the garage for a couple of months. I didn’t use any live rock, just some bottled bacteria, ammonium bicarbonate and some fish food pellets. Not sure if it made much of a difference, but this tank didn’t have a long stage of the uglies either?