Will Cured Live Rock Cycle A Tank Instantly?

My lfs sells cured live rock so if I get a sw tank will it cycle instantly if I add enough?

 

Yes and no. It has the bacteria in it but it can swing parameters around for a week or 2 as everything adjusts to your tank.

 

Nope, not really.

The definition of "cured" rock is that it won't cause a mini-cycle when you add it to the tank - I don't think that cured rock is actually cycled. It just doesn't have all the dead and decaying biomatter that regular live rock does (rather, it doesn't have as much).

Now, SOME stores do sell cured rock that's partway through it's cycle (or, rock that's already cycled), but it's pretty much impossible to tell if it's actually cycled or not, and I wouldn't call it a strong cycle due to the fact that they aren't intentionally cycling the rock. If you have 150 lbs of rock in a 100 gallon bin, and the bin only reaches 2 PPM of ammonia (or whatever it is) for a short amount of time, it will cycle - but the bacteria will be spread out over the entire 150 lbs of rock, and if you tried to add that to a new aquarium and added fish, you'd probably experience ammonia and nitrite spikes for a few weeks.

If this is your first saltwater tank, I'd honestly recommend that you use all dry rock anyway. There are a lot of benefits that come with live rock, but there are a lot of possible pests too, and they aren't always easy to spot at the store. With dry rock, you get a fresh start, and you can add whatever you want to along the way - you can order pod cultures, for example, for like $15.

 

Yes and no. It has the bacteria in it but it can swing parameters around for a week or 2 as everything adjusts to your tank.

Ok so I would still have to wait a few weeks until the parameters are stable but less than a cycle with uncured live rock?

 

Poorbigblue explained it pretty well.

 

There are a lot of benefits that come with live rock, but there are a lot of possible pests too, and they aren't always easy to spot at the store.

My lfs has the tank with only live rock. They confirmed that there are no fish or invertebrates in it and they dose ammonia daily

 

Personally, I wouldn't trust a LFS to do something so vital to the health of my tank like that. There are too many factors that could kinda ruin the cycle - what if someone doses 8 PPM of ammonia by accident one day? That'll stall or kill a cycle. Or, what if the rock's only been in the tank for 2 weeks? The rock won't be completely cycled at that point. Plus, you still have the pest issues that come with live rock.

All that said, if you trust them, then theoretically you should be able to set a tank up with that rock and be adding inverts and fish within a week or so. Here's what I'd do:

Get your rock (around 1 lb per gallon or so), and inspect it for obvious pests. You should be able to spot things like fireworms, red bugs, aiptaisia, majanos, and large numbers of asterina stars pretty easy. Provided you don't see any pests, fill your tank up and start scaping. Add sand last, and DON'T use live sand - that'll cause an ammonia spike and defeat the purpose of cycled rock in the first place.

After the tank is set up, wait 24 hours. After that, test for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate - if the rock was cured, you shouldn't get high readings for any of these. If you get 0 for ammonia and 0 for nitrite, dose ammonia to 1 PPM, and monitor for another 24 hours - if it cycles the ammonia normally, then your rock was actually cycled. At that point, you can add in your Clean-up Crew. Wait a week or so before adding fish.

 

I’m not getting the tank and other things until I do enough research about saltwater tanks first. Which will be maybe next year. Do you think it’s better to buy pre made saltwater or make my own salt water and buy an ro/dI water system?

 

My lfs sells cured live rock so if I get a sw tank will it cycle instantly if I add enough?

There is a difference between cured and cycled. Cured means the rock has had the nasties scrubbed and sanitized off of it and is ready to be cycled. Cycled means it has been through the nitrogen cycle in another tank already and will likely have little to no die off provided it stays wet/submerged. This means within a week or two of checking to make sure everything is good you should be ready to add a clean up crew and one or two fish. As for buying water vs your own system, that really depends on how much your LFS charges for the water, how well they maintain their RODI system (ie how often they change out their cartridges). Generally it is cheaper in the long run to buy your own system and make your own, but with a small tank like you are planning (10 gallon) it's going to take a while to recoup the cost of the RODI system, storage containers, salt mix, tank heater, etc. It all depends on the circumstances though. I agree that dosing LR constantly with ammonia isn't a good idea.

 

I’m not getting the tank and other things until I do enough research about saltwater tanks first. Which will be maybe next year. Do you think it’s better to buy pre made saltwater or make my own salt water and buy an ro/dI water system?

Definitely favor making and mixing my own. Letting someone else do that means you give up the control of knowing exactly what goes into your water and is more expensive. There is a member here who crashed his reef because his LFS put only RO into his saltwater jug and dropped his salinity so drastically when he did a water change that.. well, you can imagine how heartbreaking it is when things go really wrong really quickly...

 

New to SW, but I do know a fair amount about this. Your dry live rock can have dead organic matter in it. When put in water, that can begin to leach ammonia and everything. Curing is the process of letting the dry live rock soak and leach that into a bucket of water instead of into your tank. Cured rock does not mean cycled rock.

 

There is a member here who crashed his reef because his LFS put only RO into his saltwater jug and dropped his salinity so drastically when he did a water change that.. well, you can imagine how heartbreaking it is when things go really wrong really quickly...

My lfs lets you fill your own water and there’s two faucets labels saltwater and freshwater so getting only ro water wouldn’t be a problem and I would probably test the salinity before. And my tank is going to be pretty small maybe 10-15 gallons and I’m not getting a larger sw tank for a while so I’m not going to buy an ro system until I really need it. What would be an estimate for the cost of a 10-15 gallon tank? Definitely more expensive than fw tanks

 

Good luck Gourami36! I’m brand new to SW, but let us know if you have any other questions! I’ve done my share of research, so I could possibly help. I’m actually picking up a pair of Oscellaris Clownfish today!

 

My lfs lets you fill your own water and there’s two faucets labels saltwater and freshwater so getting only ro water wouldn’t be a problem and I would probably test the salinity before. And my tank is going to be pretty small maybe 10-15 gallons and I’m not getting a larger sw tank for a while so I’m not going to buy an ro system until I really need it. What would be an estimate for the cost of a 10-15 gallon tank? Definitely more expensive than fw tanks

10 gallon tank $10 at a dollar per gallon sale.
Refractometer $20-$22 from Amazon
3× 5 gallon jugs with lids. Roughly $18
Fluval 30 gallon HOB Filter $33 site to store from Petsmart
10lbs dry rock from bulk reef supply $20-$30
Basic 300-500 gph powerhead $20-$30
Basic LED light $20-$30 this assumes the tank is FOWLR
Solid marine care test kit (ie Red Sea) $42. API will get you through the basic cycle if you have one but after that I would switch
One marine compatible 50-100 watt adjustable tank heater $20-$30
5-10lbs Argonite Sand $7
Digital Thermometer $7

 

Do I have to get a digital thermometer? About $250 for a 10 gallon tank. So for smaller tanks about $2-3 per gallon?

 

I would strongly recommend a digital thermometer simply because the others aren't accurate enough to tell where your tank is really at and saltwater tanks demand a fair bit of temp stability (After all a 2 degree increase in ocean temps is killing natural reefs in the oceans right now). Furthermore at a whopping $7 compared to the cost of everything else, it's a pretty small investment. I have 2 of these (one for my tank, the other for making sure the water for the water change is to temp). I wouldn't be put off too much by the cost. For comparison my 10 gallon Freshwater Glofish tank for my office at work ran me about $150 for everything (not including fish).

 

I would strongly recommend a digital thermometer simply because the others aren't accurate enough to tell where your tank is really at and saltwater tanks demand a fair bit of temp stability (After all a 2 degree increase in ocean temps is killing natural reefs in the oceans right now). Furthermore at a whopping $7 compared to the cost of everything else, it's a pretty small investment. I have 2 of these (one for my tank, the other for making sure the water for the water change is to temp)

I already have a few extra of those so at least least one thing I don’t have to buy

 

I already have a few extra of those so at least least one thing I don’t have to buy

Sounds good, do you have any of the other equipment on the list? Also check your LFS and see what they charge for RODI and RODI/Salt Pre-Mix first. I am lucky, my LFS does RODI for free and pre-mix for 75 cents a gallon (which is cheaper than what most folks pay for theirs).

 

Sounds good, do you have any of the other equipment on the list? Also check your LFS and see what they charge for RODI and RODI/Salt Pre-Mix first. I am lucky, my LFS does RODI for free and pre-mix for 75 cents a gallon (which is cheaper than what most folks pay for theirs).

I’m going to my lfs soon so I’ll ask them. I know you first have to buy a 5 gallon jug to fill water. I’m not sure if they use ro water for freshwater.

 

Some LFS do use regular RO and not RODI as 0 TDS Freshwater isn't the best for freshwater fish. They actually do need some minerals to do well. With saltwater the addition of the types of specific marine salt re-mineralizes the RODI water with the stuff that marine fish need, without the potential nasties from regular tap water. I do believe RO is recommended among the Freshwater community for Discus.

 

Some LFS do use regular RO and not RODI as 0 TDS Freshwater isn't the best for freshwater fish. They actually do need some minerals to do well. With saltwater the addition of the types of specific marine salt re-mineralizes the RODI water with the stuff that marine fish need, without the potential nasties from regular tap water. I do believe RO is recommended among the Freshwater community for Discus.

I know ro water isn’t good for freshwater fish unless you remineralize it. I don’t know much about discus so I’m not sure

 

Hi,
Just to chime in with my own experience (and I cover some of it here Starting a Saltwater System - Part 3 - Designing, Setting up and Running your system)

And from buying live and dried rock

"How long it takes your tank to cycle, will be determined by the quantity and freshness of the rock. You dry-rock shouldn't delay the cycle.

What tends to happen is we buy the live-rock, fresh from the ocean if possible. When that rock goes in your tank, inevitably there is some die off, which maintains the ammonia source. However, if you buy enough fresh live rock, your tank can be almost instantly cycled.

As an example, my tank was cycled in a week (I never saw ammonia or nitrite), but I let it go 2 weeks before adding stock, just to make sure. My rock was harvested from the reef at 7am, on a plane at 8am, and in my tank by 9pm."