Question about curing live rock

[uriah]

If I cure some LR in a container w/o light, will adding the rock back to the tank cause another cycle? I am thinking of taking some LR that has algea on it out of the display.

[JimD]

If the rock is cured, its cured. As long as theres no signs of ammonia you should be good to go...

[uriah]

So I am going to use a new trash can w a lid and powerhead changing a percentage of the water every week, scrubbing, ect. for about 2-3 months until the water is clean. As long as the water test good before I put the rock back into the display, I should be good?

[JimD]

If you put light over the container youll be less likely to experience as much die off which will cause a cycle. If your only intent is to remove algae, theres no real need to keep it in the dark for so long, just take the rock out, scrub it, rinse it and repeat till youre satisfied then put it back in the tank..

[Jeff]

sounds like he is cooking the rock. don't worry the bacteria doesn't need light to live and you will be suprised how many little critters can live without light.

[OrionN]

I like diversity in the tank. Doing anything to decrease this is not what I like to do. Control algae should depends on control water quality and herbivorous. Manually remove them is fine. I would not keep the rock in the dark. Often they just come right back unless you can change the tank water parameter to control it. What kind of algae we are talking about here? Many sea urgin will eat almost any algae.

[recoiljpr]

If I cure some LR in a container w/o light, will adding the rock back to the tank cause another cycle? I am thinking of taking some LR that has algea on it out of the display.


If the algae is bryopsis forget about it. I had it in a container without light for almost a month and it still ended up coming back. You will have to nuke the rock, and re-seed it.


If it's just hair algae, i'd take it out, scrub it real well and put it back in the tank (unless it's really horrible). Then let your grazers finish it off. You then need to find out what is causing your paramaters to be out of whack. Removing most of the HA will then stop it from consuming the phosphate, etc. You will then see in a few days a spike in whichever paramater is out of wack. See which one it is, then take steps to reduce it.

[uriah]

My nitrates are a little high 20ppm, everything else is good. I did ALOT of cleaning and had to nuke one rock that was too far gone. Did a 20% water change, 3 days with very little light and cut back feeding to everyother day. Tank seems to be okay, but I can still see little specks of hair algea. I havent actually scrubbed the rock, that will be my next step. Trying to keep everything intact. I might also try some chem products that I have read up, any suggestions? My skimmer has been pulling well and also keeping my fuge light on 24-7 now to grow out the culerpa to compete with the algea in the display. From everything I read, this might be an ongoing battle, that few fully win:cry_smile: Not really bad though, just little spots...

[Bill S]

If you are looking to kill everything off on the rock, I like bleach for a week, then rinse every day for a week, and then cover it in anhydrous baking soda. It's high pH kills anything that managed to live thru the bleach, yet when it goes into the tank, it's still fine.

[uriah]

When you do this and add it back into the tank does it have a cycling affect? I guess it also depends on how much rock is bleached...


If you are looking to kill everything off on the rock, I like bleach for a week, then rinse every day for a week, and then cover it in anhydrous baking soda. It's high pH kills anything that managed to live thru the bleach, yet when it goes into the tank, it's still fine.

[Bill S]

Usually the bleach "eats" up pretty much all of the organics. I wouldn't place a large piece of this rock into a smallish tank.

[uriah]

My tank is 55G w 15G sump... Can I cycle the rock in another container after I bleach it and then put it back into the display?