Curing Live Rock Problems

[LOSTOZZY]

Hi all, couple of questions I’m sure will be no brainers for most of you.

I am currently part way through my first project build (32’x32’x24’ Rimless ¾ glass) and have decided to purchase my live rock and start curing in a tank in the shed to avoid the dreaded stench inside the house and avoid curing in my display.

The current curing tank set up as follows:

40 kg’s of Great Barrier Reef Live Rock, 36’x18’x18’ glass tank, two power heads (one each end for circulation), external canister filter running filter wool and activated carbon and 40 watts actinic lighting running for 4 hours each night.

Day one, not good / the smell tore my undies, the die off was obviously plentiful so I went with 100% water change and really shook the rock to remove any loose debris.

Day two, still not good / didn’t quite tare my undies but not good so another 100% water change and tank clean down.

Day three and four getting better so went with 50% water change after leaving it settle for the two days.

Now into second week and things have really settled down and the water is starting to clear and has very little smell.

Now for the questions.

The brown stuff on the rock is obviously brown hair algae, yes or no?
Some of the rock has developed a whitish looking webby sort of algae s--- as you can see in the photo, what is it and should I just scrape it out?
Should I be running the light or is this contributing to the brown hair algae?
How often and how much should I continue with my water changes?

I will be adding this rock to my display in about two weeks.

Any way thank you in advance for any assistance.

Cheers LOSTOZZY

 

[elegance coral]

Is the tank exposed to sun light? I don't understand why you have brown aglae with 4 hours of actinic lighting.
The white nasty stuff is from decomposing worms and other stuff in your rocks. I always use a scrub brush to remove it. Durring your next water change I would keep the water you remove in another container and use this as a place to clean the rocks before placing them back in the tank with the cleaner water.

 

[LOSTOZZY]

Thanks for the info elegance (sorry but didn't know your name) that sounds like a great idea. The tank is exposed to normal room light but not direct sun light as such. Should I just go ahead and scrub most of the rock with the next water change as this is my first time curing live rock and I'm not sure what I should keep and should expose of, off the rock. Will scrubbing all of the rock cause any problems?

Also should I continue with my lighting and if so what time frame etc?

Thanks for your assistance.

Cheers LOSTOZZY

 

[LOSTOZZY]

Bump!

Any answers for the above!!

Cheers LOSTOZZY

 

[schmidsa]

For curing, I would recommend:

1. Scrub the live rock with every water change.... anything that comes off easily with a scrub brush is likely dead, and just going to cause the water to get nasty.
2. Use a skimmer if at all possible
3. Use a limited lighting schedule of 4-5 hours of full spectrum light.... you can't keep it in the dark and expect any of the photosynthetic life to live

 

[tbw2499]

Go to the sponsors section of this website and check out Dr. Macs
Pacific East Aquaculture site. He has very valuable info in his reef school section that will help you out as far as curing rock and other things. Good luck.

 

[LOSTOZZY]

Thanks for your help guy's, I will continue with the water changes and washing off the rock between changes. Will continue with lighting for about 5 hours at night and also read up on the info n the sponsers link.

Once again, thanks for your assistance.

Cheers LOSTOZZY