How long to cure your liverock?

[fsu]

I know most people say anywhere between 2-4 weeks for die off, but how much die off is there if you get it the same day via airline?
I am wanting about 50 lbs and have a 125 gallon established tank that has about 60 lbs with sand in it already, along with snails and some fish.....plus that damn crab I haven't caught yet! Also, is this available, or is there a wait on it?
Thanks, Rick

 

[hdtran]

In my experience (new 120g tank, minimal bacteria), adding 55 lbs of the TBS rock resulted in a peak ammonia of about 0.25 ppm at 1 week, then, 0 at 10 days.

Adding another 90 lbs of rock (second part package, in a tank with fully cycled rock) resulted in a barely detectable color change in the ammonia test after 1-2 days.

Call Richard on the phone, he'll give you the good scoop. But I think there's a queue for the rocks right now.

 

[delta]

I wouldn't call it curing, i would call it cycling the rocks not dead so no need to cure curing refers to allowing rock that is dead to cycle off the rotting organisms and such

my rock cycled in 4 days never went over .5 ammonia that was the highest reading of the big three Ammonia, Nitrite & Nitrate.

 

[boyooso]

delta has the right idea

You Definately don't cure in the 'letting the rot go away" sense, like most 'live' rock.

My TBS live rock cycled quite quick during the 1st shipment.... the 2nd and 3rd shipment acclimated without ANY problems!!!!!!


That is my experience.

Corey

 

[fsu]

So basically you are saying it can go straight into the main tank after delivery?

 

[hdtran]

If your biological filtration is well established and you're adding a small percentage of TBS rock relative to existing rock, I'd throw it in without a second glance (unless you want to QT the rock and have a QT tank).

If your biological filtration is well established, but the added rock is a significant (say >50%) of the existing rock, I'd probably throw it in right away, but have a big bucket of pre-equilibrated salt water ready for a change if your ammonia gets > 0.25 or nitrites > 1.0 (or less, depending on how delicate your current inhabitants are).

 

[fsu]

All thats in the tank now are a mated pair of Banghai Cardinals, two false perc clowns, 3 pj cardinals, scissortail goby, 3 green clown gobies, and 4 green chromis for fish. A lot of nass snails, red mushrooms, and some red grape! Thats really it!

 

[hdtran]

Sounds like your bio filtration is established and you have a fairly light bioload.

If you're willing to forgo quarantine, you can just put in the TBS rock, as it suffers very little die-off (literally 48 hrs or less from the ocean, and 12 hrs or less in the bagged box, depending on where you live & airplane schedules). Have a container with pre-mixed, pre-warmed water ready for some quick water changes, and don't let the ammonia get past, say, 0.25ppm. You clowns, gobies, & chromis will be fine (they're pretty hardy). The inverts too. I'm not sure about the cardinals; I think they're more delicate, so you may need to hold them separately, or be more aggressive with the water changes.