Good Evening All, First and Foremost let me introduce myself, I'm Nikkid37 (a saltwater aquarium enthusiast) and glad to be on reef central. I'm seeking advice from subject matter experts on recurring my live rock that has been sitting in two totes for 1.5years. And to be completely honest, there was saltwater in the totes; but of course, after 1.5 years the water evaporated into the air. I am now returning to my hobby, and is currently setting up my 300 gallon acrylic tank and is in desperate need of advice on re-curring my live rock. It's about 300 to 400lbs and I need to know, should I use it as base rock now? or add fully cured live rock in the cycling or curing process of my previously poorly stored live rock? How long should the uncured rocks be cycled? and should it be place into a new plastic waste can alone or can i start it anew in the acrylic tank? Your responses are greatly appreciated.
Requesting Expertise on Re-curing live rock
- Thread starter Nikkid37
- Start date
theReefKing
New member
First of all!
:wavehand:
Welcome to RC!
:wavehand:
And welcome back to the hobby! 300 gallons is an awesome undertaking and you should certainly spend a lot of time in the Large Tank forum. The amount of knowledge and experience in there is unmatched!
As for your rock. Theoretically you could fill up your bins with RODI water and have salt water again because the salt will have all been left behind, but after 1.5 years in your garage and open to the air, you are certain to have spiders, and other guests who found our dried out rock a great place to call home. So that is of so e concern.
The major concern is that when your water went away your live rock died, and so did all of its inhabitants. The critters in dry Live rock do not do a very good job of breaking down, so they are all still in there waiting to decay once placed back in water.
This decay means PHOSPHATES! GALORE! And the phosphates can and will slowly leach out of the rock for months if you place it in your tank. Can you say ALGAE problem?
What you need to do, it reset this rock and then cure it.
Process:
- 24-48 hour soak in 1 part bleach 10-15 part water, circulate with power heads
- 48 hour rinse in pure RODI, circulate with power heads
- 1 - 2 months curing time in saltwater. You should have plenty of flow across the rock, and ideally hook up a skimmer to the tub. This is the time you are allowing for the dead critters to decay away and the phosphates created by their decay to leach out. You will actually want to do a few large water changes during this phase as well. The length of time you cure will depend on the results you get when testing the curing water. Past one month and no phosphates then your rock is cured.
- now you are ready for a normal 30 day cycle.
Hope that helps.
:wavehand:
Welcome to RC!
:wavehand:
And welcome back to the hobby! 300 gallons is an awesome undertaking and you should certainly spend a lot of time in the Large Tank forum. The amount of knowledge and experience in there is unmatched!
As for your rock. Theoretically you could fill up your bins with RODI water and have salt water again because the salt will have all been left behind, but after 1.5 years in your garage and open to the air, you are certain to have spiders, and other guests who found our dried out rock a great place to call home. So that is of so e concern.
The major concern is that when your water went away your live rock died, and so did all of its inhabitants. The critters in dry Live rock do not do a very good job of breaking down, so they are all still in there waiting to decay once placed back in water.
This decay means PHOSPHATES! GALORE! And the phosphates can and will slowly leach out of the rock for months if you place it in your tank. Can you say ALGAE problem?
What you need to do, it reset this rock and then cure it.
Process:
- 24-48 hour soak in 1 part bleach 10-15 part water, circulate with power heads
- 48 hour rinse in pure RODI, circulate with power heads
- 1 - 2 months curing time in saltwater. You should have plenty of flow across the rock, and ideally hook up a skimmer to the tub. This is the time you are allowing for the dead critters to decay away and the phosphates created by their decay to leach out. You will actually want to do a few large water changes during this phase as well. The length of time you cure will depend on the results you get when testing the curing water. Past one month and no phosphates then your rock is cured.
- now you are ready for a normal 30 day cycle.
Hope that helps.
Last edited:
theReefKing
New member
No problem! Good luck! If you want to see how I recently went through the process check it out here. Post 259
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2307728&page=11
The rock is still curing in the garage.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2307728&page=11
The rock is still curing in the garage.
Shock and Awe
New member
check this post out.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1914426&highlight=beyond
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1914426&highlight=beyond
dbl
Member
I'm certainly not an expert, but I did go through this process when setting up my system. I had nearly one year old dead "live" rock. Soaked in diluted bleach solution for about a week, rinsed well and soaked in RODI water. I actually went a step further a scrubbed the rocks "clean" with a wire brush. I then put in saltwater, circulated with power heads, for two plus months. Eventually went in to DT and cycled. It's been a year and, knock on wood, I have not had any algae thus far.
