29 piece of perfection

[miniwhinny]

I wanted to share my dream tank in it's early stages.

Here's my specs.

29 gallon AGA
Wooden stand
Aquaclear 110 HOB filter (for fuge)
2 x Aquaclear 50 powerheads
1 x Aquaclear 70 powerhead
30" Sunpod with 150w 14,000k halide, 6 white and 6 blue moonlights.
AquaC Remora skimmer with surface skimmer attachment.

and my pride and joy....
35 lbs of Premium Aquatics uncured Marshall Island Live Rock. I can't tell you have fabulous this rock is. I can't do it justice with a camera. It's hard in 2 dimensions to show how 3 dimensional this rock is. There are caves and holes and cliffs and soooo many places to sit corals. I have to add that the guys at PA are over and above anything I expected. They gave me exactly what I asked for in regards to shapes and sizes. My camera burned out the colors on the rocks. There's lots of pink and purple coraline. Half a dozen different macro algae. Worms. Something that we think is an anemone. Pods galore and much more. LOVE this rock.

I'm still unsure of going BB or SSB...guess while I cure my rock I can decide. I've flip-flopped back and forth on how to go so many times I'm getting dizzy !

It's a small tank but with a busy life being a mom to 2 teenage boys, having a hubby and numerous other pets, a 29 is just perfect for me.

Hope you enjoy these pics of my rocks and I'll add to this thread as my tank grows

Left side

Right side

 

[miniwhinny]

P.S. hope you like my aquascaping...I must have spent 4 hours rearranging til I got things where I wanted

 

[Andrew]

Looks good... but wheres the starboard?

 

[miniwhinny]

Starboard...right... Actually I'm using it as a breadboard. JK.

Actually don't need it if I stay BB. The rocks are really solid so I don't expect any landslides. I'm semi "cooking" my rocks in the tank and turkey basting them daily to remove anything dying off. The skimmer is removing some good skimmate but there isn't any bad smells coming from the tank.

If I add sand (just can't get over liking the look of it) the rocks are already lifted off the floor so it will be easy to get 1 1/2 inches of sand in there.

 

[miniwhinny]

So here are my questions.

this is stunning live rock (uncured) loaded with stuff. Should I blast it everyday to remove theh dead stuff or just let anything on there just decay on it's own? Should I chnage any water or leae it til after the cycle?
Even if I go BB I don't want to cook my rocks. I don't see any point in buying awesome rock only to destroy everything on it.
Thanks for any help.

 

[supervdl]

If you have a lot of flow in your tank this is not necessary on a daily basis. Just do it with the waterchanges.

 

[Dr.FuManchu]

What does cooking destroy besides Algae?

Nice rock and looks great BB.

 

[Frick-n-Frags]

those are nice looking rocks.

they don't look super encrusted, ie I'm guessing it is cured rock which means most of the ocean life has been cooked off already if it is. You will get a minimal nitrogen cycle, if any.

Don't change any water for maybe like 3 months if you are going at this nice slow rate (bravo BTW, speed kills). You want the nitrogen cycle to complete, however small. You may not ever see a nitrite spike. Just don't add a pile of fish at once, because they will re-cycle the tank ease it in over time, like get your snails in there first, then maybe some softies, then a fish and so on over time
Actually, I don't see any snails. If those pics are from the night you set up, cool. Algae will start at some point, and that is a good time for snails. I would recommend 30 small Astrea snails (1/gal) especially if you stay BB


cooking is a thing of degrees.
fresh ocean rock has all kinds of stuff, some of which is doomed no matter what, so there is some guaranteed dyoff.
"curing" is a rough cooking so to speak. it kills off like most of the sponges and macros, but polyps and worms etc can lay low and survive the rough cure. this is done to prevent massive nutrient spikes in the reeftank.

cooking to eliminate an algae plague is extreme and can take months, reducing the rock to pretty much just rock and bacteria

I do like buying a single piece of shaggy uncured once in a while just to see what crazy stuff comes off of it. One piece won't spike a tank even if some stuff dies.

 

[HippieSmell]

That's nice aquascaping for a 29 gallon. Good job.

 

[miniwhinny]

Thanks for the aquascaping comments. I changed things around a few times over the first day and then again the next morning until I got what you see in the photos posted. I really like it how it is so it will stay that way. I hardly displaced any water with those rocks they are so open, yet the tank seems filled. There are a billion caves and holes just waiting to be filled *grin*.

I have two batches of Premium Aquatics MILR both uncured. The first 20 lbs went in a month ago and the second 15 lbs went in two days ago. PA has just had a big move and I think they just got their delivery of Marshall Island two days before I ordered.

Thanks also for the curing vs. cooking explanation. That helped a lot. I think I'm going to be curing rather than cooking. I love how clean the BB is. I have two tiny spots (easy to get to) where two little dirt hills form so it's really easy to suck it out. There again I have time to decide for sure but once that sand is in I know it's going to be a nightmare to get it out so if nothing else I'll be BB for a few months (and then be used to it)

I'm not in a hurry now. I'm going to be patient letting my rocks die off and then come back (they are REALLY clean rocks to start with despite being uncured) My eventual goal is to make it home to some SPS, rics, zoos an anem and a pair of Picasso or Onyx clowns.