galvatron3000

Hello all,

I'm looking to establish my first saltwater aquarium and am wondering which is better a cured live rock or fully cured live rock? Where are some retailers you shop for such? Thanks

Tumbleweed

Welcome to FishLore.
As for which to get. Cured live rock or "Fully" Cured live rock, unless you get it from a shop by your tank, you will need to recure the rock once you get it so Cured Live rock is just fine.
There are numoris sites on the web to get live rock.
http://www.liveaquaria.com/?ref=3392&subref=AG is one of them. I personally buy it from a local shop near me that way I can pick out exactly the rock that I want and what shape I want.
Good Luck and welcome again.

Iluvatar

welcome to fishlore I think you should get either one as long as it is cured
you should buy the saltwater to save yourself from alot of troubles and that
way you can add fish right away and damsel fish are good beginner fish and
dont die that easy. If you buy the water you dont have to cycle.

galvatron3000

thanks for the welcome and answers

mastercave

i think you'll still need to cycle. the saltwater you buy from the LFS is just pre-mixed to save you the trouble, but it wouldn't add the bacteria we get from cycling.

sirdarksol

Mastercave is right. Buying the water doesn't automatically cycle the tank. The nitrifying bacteria need something to colonize in order to grow in large enough quantities.
On the upside, you can use the curing live rock to cycle the tank. The die-off feeds plenty of ammonia into the water.

fishrule101

I would do uncuring so your tank will cycle and the rock will be cured at the same time.

Trio123

The whole point of getting cured live rock is because it has live bacteria already established. It is rock harvested directly from the ocean and allowed to cure in tubs in the back of stores... so that it can stink up the store and not your house The die off should be the little worms and critters dieing but not the bacteria. Some will not make it through this process but the theory is that within the porous rock some will. So I dont understand the difference between cured or fully cured. If it's cured, it's cured, and should be good to go in your tank. You still want to add fish slowly (to allow recolonizing time for the bacteria) and you should check the ammonia levels but if the rock is really cured, you have enough, you dont add fish to fast, and you have good water flow through the rock, you should have a very short and often no cycle in a live rock saltwater tank.

Thats my experience, others may have other experience.

mastercave

as stated in this article http://www.fishlore.com/live_rock.htm,

"Curing live rock in your home can be a very smelly and dirty project."

Cured live rock = instant win! and that's the reason why i always go for cured LR, but when buying from the LFS, i've never seen uncured.

ray

man i still haven't found a LFS that has live rock at all around me...
there was one place like 45 min away or so but they wanted something like $15per lb... is that normal?
fortunately I'm in FL and there are alot of places that will ship stuff to me relatively cheap!

welcome by the way!

fishrule101

try liveaquaria. thats were i'm going to get my live rock for my new FOWLR. 15 per pound sounds pretty high. Is it cured cause its usally more expensive if its cured.

Tumbleweed

That is really high. But it also depends on what kindof Live Rock it is. Some are more expensive then others.

Premium Live Fiji Rock at Live Aquria is something in the $5-$7 range I think. A local store around me sells it for $4.50lbs for anything over 10lbs.

galvatron3000

South Pacific Deepwater (Large/Show Size) Live Rock
(Scleractinia pcs.)
Starting at $149.99
IN STOCK


Is this Cured or not. It states it's not but I sorta got confused when redaing it. Found it on Liveaquaria, love the color. I want to use it in dedication to my mother who passed in Nov. she loved purples and lavendars.

Tumbleweed

This rock comes from them uncured. You would have to cure it once you got it.

Iluvatar

I didnt have to cycle when I bought water well it wasnt just premixed.

sirdarksol

The water doesn't cycle the tank. Fully cured live rock can cycle the tank (though I wouldn't want to bet any livestock on that), as can used filter media (I have bet livestock on that, and won every time).

Iluvatar

I only had a few pieces of uncured live rock but I added fish right away and they didnt die still have my first freshwater fish I tried to cure the rock as best as I could by just leaving it there and I dont know why but it smelled wierd. I did have crushed coral that was what I think helped because the guy said it had bacteria.

sirdarksol

Yeah, curing live rock smells because some of it dies off and rots in the tank.
The fish probably survived by luck. Some people cycle their their tank with fish. If the fish are lucky, they make it through the ammonia and nitrite spikes.