Questions about curing LR

[leoslizards]

I just got some LR a couple of days ago. I don't know what kind it is but I think it's Caribbean because there's alot of flat shaped rocks and they seem to have a lot of dead/fossilized worms on it and I don't know how much it is because I don't have a scale. Someone gave it to me and I wasn't able to pick it up till 4 days later so they where out of the water for awhile. When I finally got them, I scrubbed them a bit with one of those plastic dish balls and swished them in SW to get off all the mud and debris and picked off all the dead sponges and unknown things off of it. I heard it is already cured if it doesn't smell bad. I smelled it and only two of the larger rocks had a bad smell to them. The others didn't smell at all.

I then put them in a 10g tank with fresh SW and about one gallon of used SW from my display tank that had high nitrates. It also has a 50w heater, a water pump with a spray bar at the bottom of the tank, and a hob filter without any media or pads for extra circulation. It also has a 30w (I think) halogen light bulb.

I just tested the water and the parameters are:
PH=7.6
NH3=8.0
NO2=5.0
NO3=3.0
KH=130
SG=1.019
Temp=81ºF

My questions are:
Do those readings seem correct?
Is it dead after being out of the water for so long? I don't see any signs of life on it but I did spot a few very tiny hard red corals on it. Sort of looks like carnation corals or some sort of SPS, I think.
Is it necessary to raise the ph to 8.3 and the SG to 1.025 while curing?
It was hard to read the NO2, it was actually between 0 and 5.0 on the test card but the color was between 0-5.0 so I just put 3.0. I thought nitrites where only detectable only after all the ammonia was gone?
Same deal with the NO3 but I think that's because I used the one gallon of old SW, was that a big mistake? Should I have used only fresh SW?
Do I need to use the light on it?
Should I put carbon in the hob filter?
Do I need to do a partial water change?
Is there anything else I need to do to it?

Any suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[leoslizards]

bump...

 

[leoslizards]

bump again!

 

[tmz]

There is still decomposition of dead or dying material inside and on the surface. Yes change 50% of the water once a week untill your numbers improve. Don't rush it into your tank. Lighting it with those nutrients would likely spawn lots of hair algae. Most of the denitifying bacteria likely died if it dried out. it may be more like dirty base rock at this point. It needs time to reseed. I don't think you should use carbon,let the bacteria flourish to use up the ammonia etc. On the bright side most of the undesireable hitchhikers that may have been on it have likely perished.

 

[leoslizards]

Ok, so no light, no carbon, and 50% water changes once a week. Thanks
Will it reseed itself?
I heard that high levels of ammonia and nitrites will kill the bacteria, is this correct?
I don't think there's any hitchhikers either way. Not many caves or crevices in it since most pieces are flat. There was one rock with a small cave with a divider in it that I thought would make a nice home for one of my fish so I broke the divider inside it and the side of the cave to get inside it and clean it out. I did find a really small urchin inside but it was dead. That's about the only interesting thing I found on it other then the fossilized worms.

 

[tmz]

When it denitrifies, then it is reseeded. Coralines will grow on it in time if there are any in your tank as long as you keep the cacium and alkalinity up.