So i cycled some dry rock in a bucket.. do I "flush" it out?

[Aeiyr]

As title states, I recent purchased a caribsea nano reef liferock box. Comes with two arches, and 5 pounds of odds and ends boulders. I did this because I wasn't happy with what I'd made with cement and marcorock and wanted something more natural. This rock will be 100% replacing what I have in my tank now. I have no corals. Just some snails, hermits, macro algae and two clownfish. Tank is a 14g peninsula to give a reference for volume.

So I tossed it in a 5 gallon bucket to pre-cycle it with an appropriate dose of turbostart 900 and ammonium chloride to get the bacteria all jazzy. It's cycling nicely, been going at around 81 degrees with a pond pump and an airstone on 30 second pulses. I've checked and although ammonia still doesn't wanna dip below 0.4ppm (I dosed it to 2ppm) it does have a boatload on nitrates already pumped out.

What's my next move here? Just keep letting it stew until ammonia hits rock bottom 0? Or should I swap out the water to clear nitrates? Can the high concentration of nitrates stiffle the cycle at all? And the last question, since it's soaking in high nitrate water, when it's finally ready to be used and replace my current scape, should I let it soak in clean new water to "flush" out any high nitrates deep in the rock?

 

[blaxsun]

I left my rock in a Rubbermaid trough for a few weeks while I was waiting for my tank. I'd be inclined to just leave it until the ammonia bottoms out. When you're ready for the rock, just remove, drain and place straight in the new tank.

 

[Aeiyr]

I left my rock in a Rubbermaid trough for a few weeks while I was waiting for my tank. I'd be inclined to just leave it until the ammonia bottoms out. When you're ready for the rock, just remove, drain and place straight in the new tank.

Sounds good. I'll let it chill for another week and check it again. it's been in there for three weeks so far. The biggest unknown for me was whether or not the rock would carry over a significant amount of nitrate when moved.

 

[blaxsun]

Sounds good. I'll let it chill for another week and check it again. it's been in there for three weeks so far. The biggest unknown for me was whether or not the rock would carry over a significant amount of nitrate when moved.

I suspect it will be fairly minimal.