Live Rock

[SourAngelfish]

So my tank has been up for around 6-7 months and I have always felt it’s quite bland. Being a fowlr especially with no addition of corals, a few inverts here and there. The dry rock is an absolute eye sore. It’s gotten algae but doesn’t really feel alive.

anyways, I went ahead and purchased about 25lbs of hitchhiker covered live rock from Salty Bottom Reef Co. in the hopes to spice up my tank, I’m welcoming all the inverts, “pests” and other interesting algal growths. My question is…
Should I cure this rock? I know die-off is common but will there be enough die-off with this rock going into an established tank to bomb it?
I plan to remove a bit of my dry base rock and place the live rock in its place, along with other pieces that are more showy. The bio filter will certainly be a little messy when I do this.

What other precautions should I take? Do I need to cure the rock? How long? I guess in my mind I had assumed I could just put the rock straight in my tank but that really feels like a fatal decision.

anyways, thanks in advance

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

A quick cure with a skimmer under a light would sure help reduce pollutants from shipping die off.

 

[Bouncingsoul39]

Without reef power lighting you may experience more die off than normal. Make sure you have an invert friendly specific gravity of 1.025-1.026 to minimize loss. I’d probably cure it in a bin with a continuous addition of ammonia source for 4-6 weeks in conjunction with a protein skimmer.
If that’s not feasible, then add the rock, run carbon, adjust salinity to natural salt water levels and get an ammonia badge product.

 

[Timfish]

I would stick it in a tub with an airstone or small pump for a few days or weeks. Every couple days a small brush can be used to remove any dieoff that might occur. How long you leave it is up to you but if I'm in a hurry once the rock goes several days without any new dieoff I'll use it if I'm just adding to a system like you are. (For new setups or if I'm replacing a significant portion of the rock ~>30%, I'll quarintine it for a month.) I definitely would not add any ammonia, there's going to be some as stuff potentially dies and too much will add to the dieoff. If there isn't any dieoff more ammonia certainly isn't needed as the rock will have lots of healthy stuff on it.