Curing Live Rock

Hi fellow Aquarists,

I wanted to get some advise or opinions on curing live rock. First off I have just ordered 55 lbs of Vanuatu live rock and it will be arriving tomorrow. I have a 35 gal tub of fresh RO/DI water with a specific gravity at 1.022 and temp of 74 degrees. I also have a seperate 10 gal bucket with a specific gravity of 1.030. My plan is as follows:

Take the live rock one at a time and put it in the 10 gal bucket that has extremely high salt levels. From what I read that should remove any unwanted critter like matis shrimp from populating into my tank via live rock. It should also remove other critter which will float to the top of the water, once there I can pick the critter that I want in my tank and tranfer them over to the 35 gal tub used for curing. Once the critter are removed I will put the live rock into my 35 gal Tub, so that curing can begin. I will do this to all pieces one at a time tomorrow.

My questions are:

1. I am I curing the live rock correctly or is there something I should or shouldn't do, any advise is apprecitated.

2. If I put the live rock into a bucket that has high salt levels will that kill anything on my live rock that I might want?

3. Should I do any water changes while I am curing my live rock?

4. If my rock come with different color coralline algae will the curing process remove the coralline from my rock?

 

Read my article on curing live rock on 3reef articles...
http://www.3reef.com/aquarium-page-Content-viewarticle-34.html

 

Many species of mantis shrimp can handle hypersalinity and many can't. This isn't a fool-proof method of getting rid of all of them.

 

1.030 specific gravity isn't selective. It CAN kill anything regardless if you desire that particular animal or not. Also, mantis often survive after being dry for who knows how long. I wouldn't count too much on the high salinity driving off any mantis. Gulf rock is normally loaded with mantis. Indo pacific rock I find usually has few mantis. Of all the rock I have gone through, I gotta say I don't run into them all that often.

Should you change the water? I normally don't but then again I cure in a large system with an excellent skimmer so water parameters don't really get out of control. You may want to depending how bad things get.

If the rock is fresh from the wild there should be lots of different color coralline type algaes on it. Most won't make it. It usually dies off during the cure and then reappears after some time, but don't expect all the same colors. They just have differing requirements which can't be met in captivity as well as they are out in the ocean. But any rock, no matter how fugly when it arrives has the potential to be excellent depending on how you treat it while you have it.

Good luck.

 

I just received a small shipment of uncured live rock from a local supplier. the rock was smelly and since I did not want to introduce it to my already cycled tank, I placed it in a 55 gallon rubbermaid dumpster. I added ro/di to cover, added the appropriate amount of salt mix, put in two airstones and a submergible heater. I put the heater temp on 82 on the first night and will keep it a that temp for a few days. I will not supply light. I also placed a small pump in the dumpster in order to ensure constant movement of the water. I will leave the dumpster on for five days. At the end of five days, I will check water parameters (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, phosphates). I will not do a water change, but will allow the rock to cycle in this mix. I will also reduce temp to 78 degrees at this time. Once parameters have gone down to zero (that is, zero nitrites, nitrates, ammonia, phosphates) or close to this, I will do a 50 % water change and allow the cycle to continue. I do this to ensure that the rock has completely cycled. In the event that there is a nitrite spike, I will continue to allow the rock to cycle since there is no danger of killing anything. If the parameters remain stable then i will place the rock in my tank.

I am still trying to decide on whether to provide lighting for the rock. At this time, it may not be necessary. However, if I want to have coralline algae growing on the rocks this may be something I will think about at that time.
Carib

 

Great, Vanuatu is very pretty rock. Going to come with some great life on it. You don't want to kill it all off, so carefully heed above advice.

Send us pic of what looks like when you get in tank and setup.

Good Luck!

Vanuatu








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Enjoy! 8)