Live Rock Curing

This is what the rock looked like when I brought it home. About 120 lbs. of it.




Now if you want to put crap like that in your tank then by all means do it. Not me! That is NOT coralline algae on the rock!

This is what it looked like after I was done with it. Just base rock, but at least I am not introducing problem in my tank. Little bit harder to contain and treat a problem in 300+ gallons of water.

 

I'm starting to buy in on the whole base rock myself. If you could only buy live rock seed in a bottle, we could save the reefs. It would be great for everyone, you buy live rock, bleach it, pour in a little "instant reef" and then wait one week for homemade live rock.

 

Pretty much what happens anyways. Just let the rock sit and it will become live rock. In an established tank, no probs, your bacteria should spread to the base rock. In a cycling tank either your dead shrimp or fish will provide the necessary bacteria. Either way base rock becomes live rock, just takes a little more time, which never hurts a thing in SW!

 

But then you have no coralline algae, worms snails etc.

My instant reef in a bottle will have all this good stuff in it.

 

I cured 45 pounds of live rock in my dorm room, I thought it was going to be pretty bad, it wasn't, didn't smell at all, but i did scrub the rocks pretty good in a bucket of saltwater before putting them in a rubbermaid container.

 

Get a small peice of LR from a trusted source, and scrape the coralline all over your tank with pliers. Otty did it and he has coralline up the wazooo!
Instant reef in a bottle would not have any parasites in it I would assume, so I guess when it comes out sales will be through the roof! If no guarantee of no parasites, I'm sticking with what I said!

 

Maybe we can get Otty's buy in as partner.... his algae, his critters..... we'll call it Otty's reef in a can...... Only thing I ever want from Otty in a can.

We can even put a pic of his tank on the bottle.

 

This alone would sell millions!! Got some pics of it on my phone, I can't get into legal trouble for that can I?!?!;D

 

Live Rock Curing for a NEWB

Ok I have a 100gal new tank picking up tonight, 30 gal sump with AquaEuro 135. The LFS has both Live Rock in a tank that has a lot of corollin on it and then some that came in today in 50lb boxes the cured is 3.99 a pound and the stuff in the boxes is 2.99 a pound.

If this were you new set up what would you get and how would you cure it, in the new display tank or in buckets with salt water. I am putting 80lbs of Live sand in display tank as I dont want the entire floor coverd and want the sand to be thin, i think it looks way cooler that way then 2 inches of sand.

Any help before I pick this up would be greatly appreaciated.

Thanks,
razorack--

 

This is probably extremely wrong, but I don't cure it, especially since i buy locally. I make sure to add bacterial additives(stress zyme), and make sure my nitrogen levels don't get high but I don't feel it's neccesary to kill some of the life in the live rock. also im not too afraid of unwanted hitchhikers since they would just be snacks for my fish.