Curing live rock... advice needed!

I recently received some live rock, that I want to put into my tank (that is close to finishing its cycle)

The first thing I did with the rock, was to dry it in the sun for 5 days. I have now placed them in a container with saltwater and 3 power heads to ensure good flow. (water is warm from the weather here, so no heater needed)

1. As I understand it, I should keep it there and check for ammonia (and do frequent water changes)... is this correct?

2. Also when I add this rock to my tank, will it then restart the cycling process? It is quite a large number of rocks, compared to what is in the tank now.

3. The first days they smelt horrible, but now they smell more like "the sea". Can I tell by the smell when they are ready for my tank? The water in the curing container is crystal clear. Only the sea smell is there when I lift the lid.

4. Should I take one of my tank rocks and put in the container with the new rock (to seed it)? or should I wait with that for later in the curing process?

5. Would it be a benefit to use the water from the display tank (when I do water changes) and put that with the new live rock in the curing container. I am thinking, if this could speed the process? Kind of like seeding it with my tank water instead of using new water.

Hope someone can give some good tips

Thanks

 

If it were my tank I would just start the tank with all the rock I was going to use and let the tank cycle. You will probably see a minI cycle adding new live rock even if it was curing in a separate system. The ammonia is from the die off (usually) on the new live rock. But... If you already have fish and corals in the tank already I would let the live rock cycle completely in a separate system before adding it to the display tank.

 

1. Yes, check for ammonia. But also, check for phosphates. Some live rock leeches phosphates, so you want to make sure that is all taken care of before adding to your tank.

2. As long as the rock has fully cycled in your container, no it will not start another cycle in your tank.

3. I don't think so.

4. This is a good idea but only AFTER the cycle is complete and your tests are showing no ammonia or phosphates.

5. Adding some tank water is a good idea as it will seed some bacteria. I think it speeds up the process a little bit and would do it.

 

Thanks for the feedback and advice. I have 3 small Clown Fish and a couple of soft corals in the tank now, so will wait until the tank is 100% before adding the new rock.

The new rock is starting to look good, so I hope I will be able to add them in a couple of weeks from now. Today will do a water change and add the tank water to the container with my new rock.

 

Ok, just a brief update from here. Did the water change and found 4 pieces of rock that are very "dirty" (has a lot of black stuff on them). I tried with a brush and screwdriver, but can not get it all off.. Lots of holes in the rock and its is mostly there.

So now I have taken those 4 pieces out and put in Vinegar/saltwater. Question is now how long time I should leave them there? My plan is to put them in RO water after to get rid of the vinegar and then when they are clean, but them back with the others to cycle. Is this a good plan?

I am guessing that the vinegar will kill everything and these 4 pieces will be "dead" compared to the others that are curing in the other saltwater container.

What I am hoping for is to avoid a cycle, once I put them in my tank. What are your thoughts?

 

I would do the vinegar soak for 1-2 days and then move the LR to the RO/DI water. You can leave the LR in the vinegar longer if you want, but be careful not to leave the rocks in the vinegar too long as this can start to dissolve them!

I think your plan is good.

 

Update and lessons learnt...

After soaking the 4 really dirty pieces of rock in Vinegar (2/10 mix), I realised how efficient Vinegar is for cleaning rocks. The 4 pieces came out really nice and white. So decided to do this to all my rocks, to ensure that they would be totally cleaned.

This time however, I made up a much stronger Vinegar/Water solution (about 7/10) which really got the process going. I would say however, that if you make a strong solution like that, you must keep an eye on the rocks. They will turn into sand, if you keep them in there for days.

I had mine stay in the solution for about 5 hours and then cleaned them good with a power washer. I can highly recommend using the power washer. It gets into all the small holes and pushes all the dirty/dead stuff out of there. Also blasts off all the stuff on the outer layer of the rock, that the Vinegar has desolved.

After the power wash, I put the rocks back into the vinegar solution and repeated the power wash. Then put the rocks in RO/DI water over night with a power head running.

Today, I did a water change and replaced the RO/DI water with saltwater from my tank. So now the process is to cycle the rock, so it can be added to my established tank in hopefully 3-4 weeks.

Can highly recommend Vinegar. It is easy to work with and really effective for killing/cleaning rock.

I realise what I have done, is "overkill", but I am so far super happy with the result. The rocks are now super clean and beautiful to look at. Definitely worth the time spent.

Should I add all the rock at same time or a couple of pieces at a time? What do you think is the best to do?