new live rock curing process?

[beamer]

ive had some live rock sitting around in a bucket without water for about 6-8 months. im gonna start new new mini tanks and im gonna make them into smaller pieces of rock to place in the tanks but can i use them since theyve been out of the water for so long? need help!!!

[Kristy]

You can use them but they are going to have quite a bit of die-off and create a good cycle for you. I'd start them curing right away in some saltwater with powerheads and give them a few weeks (maybe 6) before introducing them into a system.... unless you are planning for a really leisurely introductory cycle of longer than that before introducing any livestock to these mini tanks.

[Sherita]

You most certainly can use it. Because it has been out of water, it is no longer "live rock", but is now considered "base rock". Before you use it, break it up in the sizes you want, and then soak it in a container with some water for a day or so (ro/di water). Shake it while it's still in the water, and dunk it good a few times. This is to get rid of as much detritus and other accumulated junk as possible. It WILL cause a cycle in your tank, so you have to treat this new tank as just exactly that, new. Monitor your water params, use a piece of shrimp to kick your cycle off, and wait for nitrites and ammonia to spike and then drop to zero before you put any living creatures in the tank. Hope this helps :)

[CoryDude]

What you have is the best possible way to start a new tank. Definitely rinse the rock as best as you can. You can then cure it in tubs or in the tank itself. Get a small piece of liverock from an existing tank to "seed" your rock. Make sure your seed rock is from a trusted source that is free of pests and nuisance algae.

Using prodibio's bio digest helped reduce my ammonia spike when I restarted my system with dry rock.

[beamer]

Thanks guys that helps a lot cause I figured I would need to buy new rock... I will probably start curing it tomorrow so when I buy the tanks I can have them ready.

I have two questions:

I have a 10 gallon laying around so I'll do the curing there but do I have to do water changes when curing the rock in a separate tank?


The two new tanks are going to be 5 gallons and 10 gallon maybe 20 long. Do I need filtration? I'll be running deep sand beds and live rock. If I do what can I use? HOB filters, etc?

[allan]

While curing the rock, do not do water changes.

We do water changes to lower nitrates. If you're curing you want your am and trites to rise and fall as your 'trates begin to rise. Performing any water changes while you have measurable ammonia or nitrites will extend the amount of time until your cycle is complete, ie when your nitrates begin to rise.

I see little reason to perform water changes for curing rock once nitrates begin to climb as there's not any livestock to concern yourself with.

Those are small systems not to have any filtration, although a dsb is a form of filtration.

Ace has run a couple of systems with not much more than a dsb, hopefully he will chime in. Te only thing I remember about his initial issues was surface skimming. A HOB won't necessarily take care of this, but an overflow (either drilled or HOB) will clear the surface for you.

Water agitation will be another necessary consideration to help with gas exchange.

You should write down your experiences with the new micro tanks and submit an article to the Maast newsletter. This will help others as well.

[BSJF]

I would recommend taking the rock to a car wash and pressure wash it to get the dead stuff off of it. Also, I do one or two 50% water change as soon as nitrates start up. This seems to eliminate the hair algae issue many people get with a new tank.

[beamer]

thanks guys!