Curing Rock

[heymargo]

We live in a one bedroom apartment...is it possible to cure enough rock for a 34 gallon tank in our place or should we just buy cured rock?

[hobogato]

it is possible, but you wont like the way your place smells for quite a while

[txstateunivreefer]

id buy it cured go visit ed at wolf reef in san antonio you cant beat his prices

[RayAllen]

What I would do is cure it on your patio, Save the money and buy uncured rock and a tuberware container. Id just keep a lid on it and run a pump. Very easy. As mentioned Ed does have excellent prices though. Pros and Cons to both

[erikharrison]

First off, WELCOME TO MAAST! How did you hear about this site? Uncured rock can tend to smell a bit like sulfur......
I take it by your quote that you have read that book? Fenner FTW!

[heymargo]

We met Ed - way cool. We thought about the balcony thing but was wondering if it would be too hot out there. My husband wants to do everything right, from start to finish, and I don't blame him, but we don't have the luxury of a garage. The tank we're getting is that way cool Red Sea that has everything already in it. Would it be practical to buy a pump just to cure rock?

[RayAllen]

It wont get to hot on your patio to cure rock. This time of year we are in the 80's; people cure rock all the time in their garage where it gets much warmer 90 and up from being closed off. When curing rock heat isnt a big issue, it would actually speed up the progress of killing all the die off. Just do your water changes and keep the water moving with a pump and you will be good.

[heymargo]

Thanks! I was looking for fish stores here in town to visit and came across this site. I joined, got hubby to join, we paid our dues last night and will be at happy fun zoo night next month!
I am in the middle of reading the Fenner book...we went to Border's one night and saw it there (before we spoke to anyone or visited any stores) and bought it right off the bat. We also got "What Fish?" which is very interesting as well. I'm an avid reader and the more I learn, the more I'm hooked. We're going to Port A this weekend and taking my niece and nephew to the State Aquarium. I read some posts regarding the jetties so hubby and I are going to see what we can catch and release since we have yet to procure the Red Sea tank. Thanks again for welcoming me! I'm very happy to be here!

First off, WELCOME TO MAAST! How did you hear about this site? Uncured rock can tend to smell a bit like sulfur......
I take it by your quote that you have read that book? Fenner FTW!

[LoneStar]

If you got space on the patio of your apt, get a Brute trash can at the local hardware store. Buy new...since you don't want to use a old one! You can cure rock &/or cook it at the same time. The difference between the two options (cured and cooked) live rock would be that cooked live rock would get rid of nuisance algea and critters. People go with the cooked rock for a clean, worry free solution to starting up a tank. Most of those people also go barebottom with their systems too (sans sand). The rock will still stay biologically active, since the bacteria will still be alive and multiplying.

Curing the rock would still work too. You can use the trash can, or another type of container. The differences between the two are that cooking live rock takes a lot longer than curing live rock. Cooking requires the rock placed in a dark container, so that there is no light entering. Light promotes algea growth....which is what your trying to eliminate. The cooking process usually takes 2 months. Over that time you will want to keep up with weekly 100% water changes. Towards the end though, you can get by with bi weekly changes. In that time frame whats going to happen is the algea will consume itself, leaving clean (but white) looking rock. One of the downfalls is that the micro life (pods and other criters) is greatly reduced.

If you just want to cure the live rock, I'd buy some dry reef bones, and just seed it with some cured live rock. Within a month or so, the dry reef bones will be biologically active enough to enter you tank without a big cycle. The cured rock will more than likely retain any wild critters (pods/algeas) from the rock you used to seed it with. It all depends on what your going for. But do keep up with the weekly water changes when curing the live rock. If you were going to buy a skimmer (probably won't since your getting the Red Sea all-in-one tank), that would help in the curing process. Also a powerhead will help oxygenate the water and help keep the bacteria alive in the process. You don't want stagnate water.

[LoneStar]

If you go to www.reefcentral.com and do a search for cooking live rock or curing live rock, you can find a lot of threads there too!