Cycling with old dry live rock?

[Tyguy35]

Hey, so about a year ago I made the mistake of overdosing nopox into my tank and killing everything in my tank. I decided to take a break. Now I would like to get things going once again.

I have all my old live rock (dry) sitting in a bin in the basement. Do I need to cure the rock or can I use this rock to start my cycle after I give it a rinse and quick scrub? The tank is 20 gallons.

 

[Tired]

Putting that rock and its likely dead-thing contents into your tank will start your cycle nicely. The dead stuff will provide an ammonia source. Just try to keep the ammonia from getting too high and stalling the cycle.

If you cured the rock first, you'd pretty much have cycled the rock anyway. By the time everything rots off, there should be some bacteria at least getting started on there. Quick rinse, gentle scrub, and plonk it in the tank.

 

[Tyguy35]

Putting that rock and its likely dead-thing contents into your tank will start your cycle nicely. The dead stuff will provide an ammonia source. Just try to keep the ammonia from getting too high and stalling the cycle.

If you cured the rock first, you'd pretty much have cycled the rock anyway. By the time everything rots off, there should be some bacteria at least getting started on there. Quick rinse, gentle scrub, and plonk it in the tank.

Ok, thank you for the reply.

 

[Tyguy35]

Putting that rock and its likely dead-thing contents into your tank will start your cycle nicely. The dead stuff will provide an ammonia source. Just try to keep the ammonia from getting too high and stalling the cycle.

If you cured the rock first, you'd pretty much have cycled the rock anyway. By the time everything rots off, there should be some bacteria at least getting started on there. Quick rinse, gentle scrub, and plonk it in the tank.

I want to add the tank only ran originally for 4 months.

 

[Ashish Patel]

depends how much crude you have on the surface. If its not that bad I like to leave it outside for few months since mother nature has a good way of breaking down all the junk.