New live rock cured?

[ssdalton]

I got some fresh live rock and let it cure for a week or so. After checking it I put it in the tank. It's VERY white. No color what so ever. I checked the salinity in my curing tub and it was off the chart. I guess while topping off the tub I didn't refill it to the correct level.

Have I made base rock now? Or will it be OK?

Shaun

 

[Siffy]

What chart? My refractometer goes from 1.000 to 1.070. Off that chart would be very bad. How bad was the salinity off? If you were still within 1.010-1.030, you likely had very little die off and little to worry about. Many fish can even live in that range if acclimated slowly. The Aquarium Resturant in Nashville keeps its tank water at 1.009 I've heard. And many corals are fine from 1.018-1.028. Don't worry very much about the color of the rock. It can still be plenty "live" without any coralline growth on it. The hard algae will grow back quickly.

If this is a new tank, I would say all is fine but continue to cure your rock in tank another 2 weeks or so without adding any fish or corals . And monitor salinity closely. I'd also check for a cycle (ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate testing) every 2-3 days.

If this is an established tank and this new rock is less than 50% of the new total amount of rock, I wouldn't worry about it a bit. If it's more than half the rock in the system, I'd be tempted to remove it from the tank and place it back into a culture just in case there was enough die-off to cause a cycle.

 

[ssdalton]

My hydrometer only goes up to 1.030 and it was past that. So I'm not sure what the number was.

It was definately less than 50% of the new total amount of rock and this is an established tank.

I guess the reason I'm asking is that when I got the rock It looked very nice, good color and lots of life. It just hadn't fully cured I was told. Now it looks as if It has set in a tub of bleach.

 

[Siffy]

You may have killed off stuff getting much over 1.030 unfortunately, but don't worry too much about it. Everything will grow back eventually. I say not to worry about the coralline loss because that likely would have happened anyway if you had the rock in a dark container and the salinity still stayed in a good range. It's not a good judge of whether rock is alive or not. Stuff still crawling around on it is, and I'd say there already is again just from being put back in a tank with established live rock. You'll probably forget and not be able to tell which pieces you just added from the rest of your rock in 2-3 months.

 

[ssdalton]

Thanks Siffy for the advice

 

[Mariner]

FWIW, I bought a piece of "not fully cured" LR at CRA a couple of weeks ago. It passed the "smell" test (didn't notice any foul odors when I sniffed it) so I went ahead and put it in my 40g. It seems to have worked out well.
You've definitely bleached the coralline on your rock, but it should come back eventually. I imagine some of your microfauna survived as well -- pods can be incredibly tough little creatures. But for future reference, make a note to yourself: If the choice is between using half cured live rock or "curing" it till it bleaches, go ahead and use it.
Mariner

 

[ssdalton]

Hey Mariner . you're right . These were 2 pieces that I had gotten at CRA as well, real nice rock. Now I'm pretty disappointed that it's just bleached out rock.

Shaun