Cooking/Curing Question

[Joel_155]

Hey All,
So I'm new to reefing and I'm in the process of setting up my 100 gallon build. I inherited (in a manner of speaking) a bunch of live rock, a tank, sump and a stand. So in the process of gathering all I need to set this up I started cooking my rock.

Its been in my curing setup for a few months now and I've been testing the water to see whats going on. Right when I started the setup I added a piece of Live Rock to seed the dead live rock.

So I just tested my water parameters today and my ammonia was at 1ppm. This is the highest its been since I started testing. I usually do 20-40% water changes everyweek ( I'm curing my rock in a 35 gallon brute trash can with a mag 12 pump for circulation) and the highest I've seen the ammonia is .25 or .30 ppm.

I'm guessing this means that the cycling process has started? So as long as I continue the same process I should next see a spike in nitrates right?

Ive been reading through the forums basically nonstop but I figured it couldn't hurt ask the experts and confirm my suspicions. Thanks for the help!!!

Joel

 

[bertoni]

So, the dead rock and the live rock have been in the tub curing for a few months, and suddenly the ammonia is spiking? I'd guess something got into the curing tub.

 

[Joel_155]

hmm...well...I don't want to rule it out but I can't imagine how. The trash can is always covered and I'm really careful when I do anything with it.

I was hoping that this was the ammonia spike that should be followed by the nitrate spike...I'm guessing by your response thats not the case.

 

[Joel_155]

I guess if the reading is that off the charts it could have been a testing error....thats probably what happened.

 

[tmz]

If it's cycling you'll see ammonia then nitrite then nitrate. Don't uderstand why it took months to start, usually starts inside a week or so.

 

[bertoni]

I agree that testing error is a possibility, too.

 

[whitesquall]

I cooked all my live rock about 5 years ago, my original reef was setup and running with a DSB for about 6-years and looked beutifull, then all of a sudden, it started growing hair algea like crazy and I started loosing corals. (As with anything in this hobby good results take a long time.)

After reading many posts, most people at the time were doing it between 5-12 months, I decided to cook my rock for 10-months.
(you could probable get away with doing it for 5-months)

The method I used to cook my live rock:
I started by setting up a 100-gallon rubber made tub with a lid to keep all the light out, I placed all my rock in it and added a few powerheads for circulation, and weekly I would go in the rock tub and shake all the rock around in the tub, used the powerhead to loosen the detitruss in the rock and would dump the water out and put the water from the display tank waterchange back in it.
"i'de like to add the first 2-3 months the nastiest dirtiest smelliest stuff came out of my rock, then the coralline algea turned white and by the 7th-8th month no matter how much I shook the rock in the vat the water stayed clear"
I contiuned this regimin for another 2-months (on the 9th month I setup a heater and put a couple of green cromis in the vat and left the lid off and fed the fish daily for one month and tested the water and all was perfect.

I then re-rock scaped the display tank, put all new sand and it took about 3-months for the coralline algea to come back and since then all has been perfect..

Note: I only tested the water in the vat on the 9th month.

Just my two cents, I think when you have a system with a deep sand bed (which I personally think looks more natural, also because I like to keep cucumbers, starfish and just like seeing the hermits crabs crawl on the sand), it accumulates the waiste for a really long time then the rock starts to accumulate nitrates(the point when things go bad), where as a bare bottom system utilizes more agressive flow(using more electricity,heating up the water) to keep the detirus out of the display tank and export it to the skimmer.

Now, just before I do a water change I take a small powerhead and blow out the live rock then do the water change and once every six months.. I suction the top 1/4 inch of sand and replace it with new sand.(hoping to keep the system clean longer)

Not sure if it does..... but I hope that helps.
-Alex.

 

[tmz]

Cooking live rock can go faster(weeks) with lanthanum chloride in the curing bin water to keep the PO4 at 0 for 2 to 3 weeks until the rock stops leaching PO4.

Deep sand tends to adsorb and absorb lot's of stuff over the years and clog too. . It needs to be replenished with live sand periodically to keep it effective as a denitrifier. I had one last over 7 years before it quit and became a problem.

 

[twiggyb]

Where do you get lanthanum chloride from?

 

[tmz]

A pool supply store shoud have it. TYhe product I use is SeaKlear phosphate remover. You can findi t on line if it's easier.