Dry rock curing - Everything is 0 from start?

[abodner]

New to the hobby, and wanted to ping the experts.

I've ordered about 100LB of dry live rock online (FL Inland), and have had it in my "Curing station" for about a month. I am keeping them in relative dark, 1.021 Salinity, heated to 78 degrees with two dual powerheads. From day 1, my phosphate and nitrate levels have been reading 0. I've changed the water about two weeks into the process, and to date everything reads 0.

Should I assume it's good to go, or does someone else's experience dictate anything otherwise?

 

[CarrieB]

What about ammonia and nitrite? Those are the levels you need to monitor to see if the rock is cycling.

If the rock has organic matter on it, it should cycle itself. If not, you need to add a source of ammonia, either food, shrimp or actual ammonia to feed the bacteria.


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[sde1500]

You won't have nitrates if you never put anything in to start a cycle. Dry rock is dead, nothing on it to die off and add ammonia. If you didn't add a source of ammonia, that rock isn't cycled. No phosphates is a good sign though, plenty of dry rock serves to be a source of high phosphates.

 

[abodner]

CarrieB, sde1500 - Thanks for the quick replies. I scrubbed them down fairly well, but will measure nitrite and ammonia today. I am assuming once the levels are 0, I should proceed to add a shrimp or two to start the cycling process, or do you recommend live sand?

 

[CarrieB]

You can add sand when you set your tank up. Just add a shrimp now and monitor the ammonia and nitrite levels. Make sure they both go up and then back down to zero. Ammonia first and then the nitrite.


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[thegrun]

...and please do yourself a favor and use dry sand (washed to remove the fines).

 

[MiddletoM]

having your levels at 0 with dry rock is really lucky! my dry rock leached phostphates which resulted in 0.5ppm and nitrates were over 200ppm! Also, there was enough dead organics inside the rock to trigger a small cycle.