curing base rock
- Thread starter chase33
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artful-dodger
New member
It could take months...you would do well to place the base rock and start the process but then add another 20 or 30 pounds of beautiful, hand-picked live rock on top to get things started. It'll cost more but this process is likely to try your patience either way...
Once you do complete the cycle and your ammonia and nitrite readings are zero and your nitrates are dropping, be sure to livestock very slowly and let all of that base rock develop a good bacterial colony without inducing another cycle.
Once you do complete the cycle and your ammonia and nitrite readings are zero and your nitrates are dropping, be sure to livestock very slowly and let all of that base rock develop a good bacterial colony without inducing another cycle.
AD, it takes months to cure base rock? I was under the impression that base rock with no life in it would only take a little while (3-4 weeks) for a cycle of anything that might have been attached in it/to it and during that time you could add some live cured rock to seed the useful bacteria, coraline, etc...
I had added base rock to my established tank when I had it going and never had a cycle (granted it was not a lot of base rock...) I am setting up my new tank now w/ 100 pounds of quary rock that is sold to the LFS' locally here as base rock.
While I am noticing some stuff floating around the tank, there doesn't appear to be very much and the skimmer is only pulling a little bit...test kits are on the way now, so I have no idea what the numbers are..no livestock or live rock has been added yet.
I had added base rock to my established tank when I had it going and never had a cycle (granted it was not a lot of base rock...) I am setting up my new tank now w/ 100 pounds of quary rock that is sold to the LFS' locally here as base rock.
While I am noticing some stuff floating around the tank, there doesn't appear to be very much and the skimmer is only pulling a little bit...test kits are on the way now, so I have no idea what the numbers are..no livestock or live rock has been added yet.
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Base rock has old dead organic material in it that will start some type of cycle. Check out www.marcorocks.com, they explain it well. Its also a great place to buy base rock.
chase33
New member
Marcorocks is where I purhased my rocks. I have yet to perform any tests yet but you can look at the rock and see there is plenty of dead mushrooms and other material on it. After I put the rocks in the tank the skimmer began going crazy. It is producing much foam and prior to that it wasn't producing any.
Old Yeller
New member
so the base rock leaches out organics?
artful-dodger
New member
the bigger issue (at least what I was trying to say, but not very clearly) isn't that the base rock itself causes a cycle (depending upon where/when/how it was harvested it may or may not have any dead material on it) but that it won't be able to support filtration until it is populated. You could put 300 pounds of base rock and clean sand in a big tank and not see any cycle...until you added a fish or two and started feeding.
Without the necessary bacterial colonies, the rock isn't doing what you want it to do.
It doesn't matter how you arrange the mixture of base rock and live rock...just place them so the shapes look good...in a couple of months the base rock will assume the same coloration and life as the live rock. Your cycle will take as long as the live rock requires...the base rock will probably not increase or decrease it at all.
Without the necessary bacterial colonies, the rock isn't doing what you want it to do.
It doesn't matter how you arrange the mixture of base rock and live rock...just place them so the shapes look good...in a couple of months the base rock will assume the same coloration and life as the live rock. Your cycle will take as long as the live rock requires...the base rock will probably not increase or decrease it at all.
