New tank with dry rock question....

[amnesiac]

Hello everybody. So after 10+ years since my last tank I'm giving it another go. This time around I wanted to use dry rock and am a bit confused on whether or not I need to "cure" it and if I do, can I do that inside my main set up.
I have a 125 gallon with a 40 gallon sump/refug. I have a 4" sand bed that is 200lbs of dry sand and 60lbs of the Caribsea AragAlive Fiji Pink.
So I have about 120lbs of dry Caribsea South Sea Base Rock coming in and initially I was just going to drop it in, but after some digging I decided to ask some advice before doing so. I understand that dry rock should be given a vinegar/RO bath to get rid of whatever dead stuff maybe clinging to it and to pull out as much of the phosphates as possible. Now the vinegar bath for the dead stuff I understand, but the phosphates part I'm kinda iffy on. If my tank is empty and is just starting the cycle anyway, cant I just stick the dry rock into the tank after a good vinegar bath/scrub??? Wouldnt any leached phosphates dissipate anyway with the water changes I would be performing???
Please forgive me if I sound like an idiot. Like I said, I'm just getting back into it. Thanks for any help guys!!

 

[CStrickland]

You don't have to worry about dead stuff, that rock is mined from the ground at a quarry.
The idea with the phos is that it balances with the water. So if you are feeding the tank, and food and poo are landing on the rock, it's not going as fast as it could. People report rocks leaching phos for a year in their tanks, all the while growing algae and preventing coraline taking hold. So it does save a lot of time to cook it in water without any phos, cause it gets pulled out faster to make a balance. This is NOT a proven thing, the more you read the more you see reefers are making it up as they go. But it's fairly low risk, so why not?

PS welcome back!

 

[scooter31707]

I would just rinse off with the water hose and put into the tank.

 

[amnesiac]

Thanks, CStrickland. Guess I need to get a few more Brutes and get settled in for some hardcore waiting

 

[Greybeard]

I started back up, after a 10 year hiatus, about 6 months ago. Welcome back

 

[A.Astore]

Fun times! This was a very question my wife and I spent many hours questioning and re-questioning.... and questioning again. In the end we ended up putting the completely dead, nasty, ugly rock in brutes and letting it "cure" (heater, powerhead for circulation with no skimmer) simply because our floors were being redone anyway so there was absolutely no reason not to take advantage of it and let the rock do its thing. The rock was through the ammonia, trite, trate cycle in about three weeks. We also used the so called live sand when we put the tank up. What we found from this approach was that because the rock did its thing and we used the bagged live sand we have a very SMALL cycle (and I mean small). I will admit we dumped some of the bacteria in to help with the sand and get bacteria started.

The one thing you will find is there is no concrete answer to this so regardless of what you decide it will eventually get you where you need to be it is just how much effort you want to put in ahead of time. For all I know, we got stupid lucky in terms of our tank being critter friendly as quickly as it did. At this point I credit it with the brute curing approach, seeding the tank with bacteria from the start to comp for the sand possibly causing issues, and luck. I already know not to expect it the next time.

(The only true hassle with the brute cure is getting the water ready because you don't do water changes or anything other than monitor the cycle stage the water is going through)

Hope you have the best of luck in getting this up and running!

 

[CStrickland]

Thanks, CStrickland. Guess I need to get a few more Brutes and get settled in for some hardcore waiting

Well, not necessarily. There's no way to know how much phos the rocks picked up from the ground (water picks up phos from organics on the ground and then deposits it in the rock on its way down to the aquifers or whatever), and some sellers at least claim to do a little cook before they ship the rocks. It might not be that long and all, and a lanthanum chloride drip can speed it up significantly.

I was recently advised by the chemistry forum that if the water doesn't show any phos reading after 3 days, your good to go. You'll need a decent test like the hana ulr checker to be sure.

PS you can do it in the tank too. I read your post as saying the sand was already in there but if it isn't then I think that's the easiest. The rocks are easier to arrange when they are dry, then you add water and cook 'em, then you add the sand once the rock's cleaned out. That's how I'm doing it. I only have like 2" of sand though, a deeper bed might require diff process.

 

[amnesiac]

Thanks everybody for your insight. Even my LFS owner has his own opinion on the matter. I'm going to do a bit more digging and see what's what. I'm leaning towards draining the tank, pulling the sand and just cooking the rock in the main tank as this would be the easiest way. Otherwise I'd have to clear garage space and buy more stuff. Thanks again, everybody. -A