How hard is it to cure LR?

[~SIRENA~]

Is it worth it to buy Fully Cured LR?
I see some sites with pre-cured, others with fully cured LR-ready for the tank.
What do you guys think?
I would really appreciate your comments and experience.
thanks,
Adriana

 

[jgiannini]

Depends on where you're going to buy it. I've bought mine from liveaquaria.com for a good price for 45 lbs.....about $3.50/lbs. shipped. My LFS sells fiji rock for $8/lbs. fully cured. The shipped stuff above is pre-cured, but there will be some die-off during shipping, so you will need to cure it again, albeit not as long as uncured rock....it's not made to just drop in the aquarium. I used it to cycle my tank when I started.

 

[mildew]

Bought fresh, uncured LR (12 hours from ocean to tank) and cured it in the tank. Don't think I'd do that again. Two years later I'm still fighting some of the stuff that survived and that I thought was just great at the beginning.

 

[herostar]

Curing live rock is not hard at all. You basically just let it sit in the tank w/o lights until the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels are zero.

 

[Python73]

BEWARE the terms: fully cured / pre cured / etc. These mostly will tell you what the person storing the rock did to it. What matters to you is, what dod the person you buy the rock from do to it. Becuase any rock that gets shipped to you any distance, in water or out of water, is going to need to be cured by you. Unless you go to the tub of rock in person, and drive it 10 minutes to your home, in tank water, it will need cured.

The difference in rock product that is transshipped basically comes down to how much stuff did the collector scrape off / flush off the rock before boxing it. The more they removed, the better it ships, and the smaller the ammonia spike and curing process for you.

S !