[Mark024]

Okay I'm a little worried here... I just got a large shipment of lived rock that is uncured so I set it up for curing in a 50 gallon trash can. I had a 250 watt heater that kept the temp around 75 degrees, my basement is fairly cold, around 65-68. I had the specific gravity set nicelt at 1.023. For some reason the heater broke and the water temp went down quite a bit...the problem was that I didn't chedck the temp I just saw that the specific gravity had risen and I panicked and diluted my water by taking out some and replacing it with fresh water. As soon as I realized what happened I went out and bought a new heater and got that fixed, so of course now my specific gravity is low and I have changed the salinity. I fiddled with it and got it back to 1.023, but that meant changing the salinity in the trash can with the rock in it yet again. I know that the process of curing is tgo get rid of the noxious pests on the rock and promote the growth of denitrifying bacteria and coralline algae. Did my changing the salinities have a serious detrimental effect on the bacteria and algae on my rock? Is my live rock now dead rock and worthless? Anyhow any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

[jsaltzgi]

I think you'll be fine- it may set the curing process back a bit, but I'm sure it's not "dead". Your rock wasn't shipped submerged in water- some of the stuff dies off from that, some may have been killed by the salinity/ temperature change (probably more the salinity if you lowered it or raised it quicky, as the cool-down was probably a relatively slow event.

Don't despair, though- in a couple weeks, I'm sure it will be able to be added to the tank

James

[Sohoal Tang]

you likely did some damage to the rock but it is STILL ALIVE and
will be fine with time....
good luck
Tim