Dark curing dry live rock + cycling questions

[skey44]

Thats an awesome idea. Thanks!

You could do NSA style or whatever your trying to achieve just fine before or after. I have made some small stackable arches from the pre-conditioned rock out of my brute to add to the original rock. It didn’t cycle or encounter a meaningful ugly stage when established to my mature aquarium.
There’s definitely a way to do both Oct curing and aquascaping.
Big benefits of old live rock from the yard are the natural shapes, low density, and higher porosity than the mined stuff.
It also makes the best for aqauascaping in my opinion.

 

[Rooles]

You could do NSA style or whatever your trying to achieve just fine before or after. I have made some small stackable arches from the pre-conditioned rock out of my brute to add to the original rock. It didn’t cycle or encounter a meaningful ugly stage when established to my mature aquarium.
There’s definitely a way to do both Oct curing and aquascaping.
Big benefits of old live rock from the yard are the natural shapes, low density, and higher porosity than the mined stuff.
It also makes the best for aqauascaping in my opinion.

I was wanting to glue up a lot of rock together to make the scape, i wouldn't be able to do that wet I didn't think. I'll do it all dry and carefully put it in a square tote and do it that way. A totes cheaper than a brute trashcan so i can dig that!

 

[Maxx]

You're welcome.
I'm currently out of the hobby for a bit, but that is EXACTLY how I plan to do it when I get back in.

 

[hillg2784]

I came across this at the perfect time, and it was a great read. I also just finished watching Ryan’s talk about it at Reef-A-Palooza—very interesting if you haven’t seen it yet.

I’ve just started the bleaching cycle on some old rock I’ve had in the basement for a few years. Today I put it in a bleach mixture with a powerhead, and I’ll let it run until Sunday. After that, I’ll rinse everything with RODI and let the rock sit for a week to air out.

Next, I’ll begin the dark cycle. I’ll add a bacteria source (Dr. Tim’s, Fritz, etc.), then after a week I’ll do a 100% water change and let the rock sit in the dark for another week.

Finally, I’ll add pods and plankton right before everything goes into the new display tank.

Hope this really jumps starts the cycle and helps makes the ugly phase a little less ugly.

 

[Rooles]

I came across this at the perfect time, and it was a great read. I also just finished watching Ryan’s talk about it at Reef-A-Palooza—very interesting if you haven’t seen it yet.

I’ve just started the bleaching cycle on some old rock I’ve had in the basement for a few years. Today I put it in a bleach mixture with a powerhead, and I’ll let it run until Sunday. After that, I’ll rinse everything with RODI and let the rock sit for a week to air out.

Next, I’ll begin the dark cycle. I’ll add a bacteria source (Dr. Tim’s, Fritz, etc.), then after a week I’ll do a 100% water change and let the rock sit in the dark for another week.

Finally, I’ll add pods and plankton right before everything goes into the new display tank.

Hope this really jumps starts the cycle and helps makes the ugly phase a little less ugly.

Ooo thats awesome! I decided to go straight into the dark cure and skip the bleach step. Ive got a build thread going now. Im going to try and do my best to keep it updated.

 

[MikeReefs]

Currently dark curing a 20lb Marco rock structure, ran it with no gfo in about 10gallons and got .90 phos did a waterchange and currently running a hefty amount of GFO. Now reading this I’m thinking of pulling it when I get readings of about .10 instead of 0

 

[Rooles]

Currently dark curing a 20lb Marco rock structure, ran it with no gfo in about 10gallons and got .90 phos did a waterchange and currently running a hefty amount of GFO. Now reading this I’m thinking of pulling it when I get readings of about .10 instead of 0

Seems like i need to get my hands on a phosphate test kit.

 

[MikeReefs]

Seems like i need to get my hands on a phosphate test kit.

Nothing beats a Hanna. Stock up on regents when they go on sale

 

[skey44]

Ooo thats awesome! I decided to go straight into the dark cure and skip the bleach step. Ive got a build thread going now. Im going to try and do my best to keep it updated.

You should add a link to your build thread!

 

[skey44]

Nothing beats a Hanna. Stock up on regents when they go on sale

Same!

 

[Rooles]

You should add a link to your build thread!

Sweet! Just did it. Thank you

 

[hillg2784]

I came across this at the perfect time, and it was a great read. I also just finished watching Ryan’s talk about it at Reef-A-Palooza—very interesting if you haven’t seen it yet.

I’ve just started the bleaching cycle on some old rock I’ve had in the basement for a few years. Today I put it in a bleach mixture with a powerhead, and I’ll let it run until Sunday. After that, I’ll rinse everything with RODI and let the rock sit for a week to air out.

Next, I’ll begin the dark cycle. I’ll add a bacteria source (Dr. Tim’s, Fritz, etc.), then after a week I’ll do a 100% water change and let the rock sit in the dark for another week.

Finally, I’ll add pods and plankton right before everything goes into the new display tank.

Hope this really jumps starts the cycle and helps makes the ugly phase a little less ugly.

I started getting a jump start on my cycle.

My method is to use established live rock(from soon to be old tank), a MarinePure block (excellent biological media), added nitrifying bacteria(Microbater Start XLM, and an ammonia source (frozen brine shrimp) to creates an ideal environment for a rapid and efficient tank cycle. I’m doing all of this in a bucket, with a power head and heater. The "dark cycle" approach is going to run about a week or two. Hopefully this really helps jump start the tank, which arrives tomorrow.