Splitting Live Rock

[mp5150]

Hey all! I was curious about something. I just split a large bulky piece of LR into about 5. Currently I have it curing in a bucket. Is this a necessary process? How long should I wait to put it back into the tank? Will it go through another curing process?

 

[meco65]

Wait 24 hours then test your water if its good you should be ok. My self if it was in the tank with no problems and you did not have it out of the water for long, and just split it as long as you rinse it in salt water before going back to the tank I don’t think you will have a spike. Only if you have a lot of die off do to being out of water for to long would I worry.

 

[abugs1985]

Curing rock is very important! You want to cure it in the bucket for a week or so and then scrub all the build up and the white junk off and then go through the whole process again twice more. The whole process should take no more than three weeks. Live rock has tons of living organisms in it and you need to allow a "die off" period. If you add it to your tank right away your water parameters will go nuts and possibly damage some of your inverts and so on. Spliting the rock isn't necessary though.

 

[abugs1985]

my apologies...i thought you had just purchased the rock, not simply taken it from your tank.

 

[mp5150]

So them I may be able to put it back in my tank in the next two days or so?

 

[navajo]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8104026#post8104026 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mp5150
So them I may be able to put it back in my tank in the next two days or so?

If it was already in your tank and cycled and you just took it out long enought to "frag" it D ) and it wasn't out of the water for more than an hour or so, you could just put it back in now. No need to wait in my opinion.

 

[Melody]

I've split larger rocks (cycled already) rinsed them in saltwater as meco65 did. And put them right back in the tank with no ill effects.

 

[mp5150]

Great!