curing live rock

[lightcycler]

Any issues with curing live rock in the tank if I plan on waiting at least 8 weeks before fish addition? Certainly measuring chemical levels for response. I'm thinking the more diverse population I can get in the tank the better but I may be missing the down sides on this.

The rock will have been cured but will have been in wet newspaper shipment for probably 3 days.

[Zoanuts]

Tough call. When you cure your live rock usually means you kill it off and bring it back to life.
Some life does survive a day shippment and it could be something you don't want.
We cook all rock for 6 weeks before we add it to the tank. All you need is a large trash can. RODI water a heater and powerhead. Take your water temp up above 85 put the power head in and put lid on to keep light out and cook away. You will need to do water changes for a month or so.
When you are done you will have white clean rock and you get to add the goodies to make it grow again.

[leebca]

I took cured live rock and put it into my new marine system for its final cure. It worked quite well, this last go around. You just need to be extra patient for everything to settle down. There is usually a rush of organic waste build up depending upon how 'cured' it was before. But if the LR really hasn't been cured or cured improperly, the die-off will likely be too much and it would be better to further cure it out-of-tank.

[lightcycler]

Thanks. Hope the rock arives Thursday. I have nothing but time to wait for the system to be ready and right By the way. I just finished the article on DSB's publised in Seabay by Dr. Rob Toonen. Found it extremely interesting. I'm getting hooked on this stuff.

[Zoanuts]

Thanks. Hope the rock arives Thursday. I have nothing but time to wait for the system to be ready and right By the way. I just finished the article on DSB's publised in Seabay by Dr. Rob Toonen. Found it extremely interesting. I'm getting hooked on this stuff.

You are getting sucked in aren't you

[lightcycler]

Yup. I bought a tank four years ago that was running and stocked. I am in charge of several food labs.......lots of micro and thought I knew what I was doing...........wrong Now I'm learning what needs to be done and learning the right things to do. Great forum here. Glad I found it.

[lightcycler]

I'm bringing this aquarium back up after 4 years. I rcvd my live rock today. Pretty pumpled. Very nice rock and arrived in great condition. Rinsed it in saltwater and into the tank to begin the cycling process. zero ammonia on addition of the live rock. The live sand had no impact on that parameter. Salinity, pH, temp in good shape. Alkalinity a little out of balance. Will see how that comes along as the tank matures.

Question? I have a 75 gallon aquarium with a skimmer, and under tank sump circulating at 10 turn overs per hour. I also have an emporer 400 HOB filter with biowheels. Should I run the carbon filters in the HOB? I've been reading the biowheels are nitrate producers? Conflicting data on that I think. Suggestions on running the HOB and with what in place? Carbon filter with maybe a filter floss? I put some filter floss on top of my sump and bio balls

[leebca]

You posted in the Saltwater (Fish-Only) Aquariums Forum, so I'm assuming you are not intending to make this a suitable reef marine system.

If marine fish is your primary goal, then nitrates are not that important to control. Your water changes should do the job, along with the live rock helping along. So, though some biofilters do end their filtration by producing nitrates, it isn't the end of the world for a FOWLR or FO marine system.

Carbon should be used, wherever it is most convenient to place it.

I prefer to keep separate my mechanical and biological filters. Thus, I don't disturb the biological filter when I have to clean out the mechanical filter. It is only a personal preference. So, you can configure your placement of carbon and floss (mechanical filtration) anywhere it suits you.

[lightcycler]

currently I"m only going towards FOWLR. There may come a day when I move to reef but thats not this day . I also have a UV system that I'm not going to run for the moment. Unless someone has a great reason I should in a FOWLR system. Really I think its relax and wait now huh?

[leebca]

Time and patience will pay off big time in this hobby.

I wouldn't discount the UV too quickly. If it is sized properly, has the proper energy, and the flow rate through it is slow enough, it can improve the (visual and actual) water quality (if you are using a skimmer), and reduce free floating bacteria and protozoans.

Are you following along with this post?
Setting Up a FOWLR Aquarium

[lightcycler]

Yes I'm at step 8 of the post.

[Zoanuts]

Yes I'm at step 8 of the post.

Yep! Sit back and relax and watch your rocks.....sit there. and continue to wait. And when you thing you need to load something go get another and wait some more. Keep us informed and take some photo's for us. We love to see progress of the build.

[lightcycler]

I do have a question. As im moving into the cycling process here with live rock. I've been running the lighting sometimes 8 hours a day. The brown algae is coming on. I know it will come but wondering if I should run minimal lightiing or not at all at this point? I will be going out of town on work Monday so can bring lights on and off with a timer or just leave them off for those days.

[leebca]

Some people believe that controlling lighting will control the nuisance growths. I'm not one of them. Nuisance growth will find a way, so long as nutrients are available.

The aquarium just needs its time. I would leave the lights on as you would as if you had stock in there. Your live rock has life, including coralline algae that needs light, so you don't want to lose that life.

[lightcycler]

Thanks Lee. Thats the way I was thinking about it.......Neat things coming out on the Live rock, I'm sure when I get home after five days the brown algae will have really made the tank ugly lol but this too shall pass.