Which is better? Curing ex live rock.

Val Shebeko

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There seem to be two schools of thought about bringing dead live rock back from the dead.

1. Put all the rock in a bin / can / old tank , add heater, pump, aeration, some canned bacteria, change the water once a month and rinse lather repeat, until the water stops smelling bad. Put it into your tank and cycle.

2. Dip in muratic acid for an hour ( concentration unknown ), soak in bleach overnight, rinse, soak in phosban, rinse, cycle.

I have time on my hands before I get to the cycle part and was going to use method #1. But now I am confused. Thoughts ?

Thanks in advance.

V
 

Idoc

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Well, both will work... with some changes to the plan, though.

1. This works fine, but don't add bacteria at the beginning during the cure phase... you only want that during your cycle phase. When curing, best the water up to around 85-90 degrees to get faster action breaking down any organics. I do this in freshwater since it'll have to be changed often. Change the water every day or so the fittest could weeks of there's a lot of organics in the rock. If not, you may be done with this part in a week. Testing the water for ammonia is another good way to see if you are still being organic stuff degrading. After this, then go to the cycle phase with saltwater.

2. Muriatic acid can be rough! Decibel do outdoors and have a child boxed of baking soda on hand to neutralize the mixture before dumping. Also, if you leave the rock in that acid for an hour, hi won't have much rock left when you're done! About 20-30 min will do it. Then after rinsing thoroughly, let the rock shut in the sun and dry. I have no idea why you'd then bleach the rock after acid, though. Using bleach is another method by itself.
 

Reef.

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There seem to be two schools of thought about bringing dead live rock back from the dead.

1. Put all the rock in a bin / can / old tank , add heater, pump, aeration, some canned bacteria, change the water once a month and rinse lather repeat, until the water stops smelling bad. Put it into your tank and cycle.

2. Dip in muratic acid for an hour ( concentration unknown ), soak in bleach overnight, rinse, soak in phosban, rinse, cycle.

I have time on my hands before I get to the cycle part and was going to use method #1. But now I am confused. Thoughts ?

Thanks in advance.

V

aren’t you mixing up cycling and curing?

#1 is cycling
#2 is curing.

with #2 still needing to be cycled.
 

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