My live rock won't cure

[reefer1970]

I originally started my tank with florida Live rock. Just threw it in with fresh salt water and waited for it to cycle. I needed more rock so I ordered more and it had a lot of die off so I wanted to cure it in a trash can before adding it to the tank. It's in a lot of water with a power head and no heater but it is in my heated house. My ammonia was pegged so I did 50% changes and it always returned to high ammonia so I got it down a little and added some tank water hoping there was some good bacteria but it won't go down. Should I just wait longer and maybe the frequent changes prolonged the curing time or should I continue the water changes?

 

[gone fishin]

What is the time frame on all this?

What is pegged? 5ppm,50ppm

 

[Deftones2015]

Did you remove all the dead stuff you could? When I got mine it had chunks of sponges etc. I had to take off. Also could have something inside the rock that may have died and is causing the spike. I would take it out piece by piece and look it over to make sure all dead matter is off of the rock. Also may take each rock and swish it a few times in fresh saltwater to try to get anything that may be inside the rock out.

 

[Giants13]

I don't know if it matters a whole lot but I've always cycled my rock with a heater in about 78 degrees.

 

[rfurst]

no reason to add water from your DT. Nothing you can really do if you keep having high ammonia levels other than keep replacing water and waiting.

 

[thegrun]

I don't know if it matters a whole lot but I've always cycled my rock with a heater in about 78 degrees.

Lower temperatures do slow down the cycle.