Cure Marco stone?

[Fredrik Andersson]

I just bought a small amount of Marco stone. The seller said I only needed to rinse it well before I added it to the tank.

After a discussion in a FB-group they convinced me of curing it for at least a month before.

What is your opinion? And if curing is a must, how do I do it?

Background story: I got a 21 Gallon tank which currently has 11 pounds of Live stone. I know I should have around 17 pounds, but the shop didnt had any more. So my plan was to buy these 11 pounds and add another 6 pounds of dry rock and start the no2 cycle.

Will these 11 pounds of live stone be enough to start the no2 cycle?

 

[CDavmd]

Did they say cure or cycle? Curing is the process of allowing the dead organics and debris to decompose from rock. Marco rock is a terrestrial rock dug out from Florida - It is not dead ocean rock, like pukani for instance. There is nothing to cure on Marco rock, it has no dead organic debris such as sponges, etc.

Cycling rock is the process of making it live by inoculating it with bacterial species so that it will serve as the foundation of your nitrogen cycle.

So to answer your question- Marco rock does not require curing. Just rinse and it is ready for seeding and cycling. Now you have a relatively small aquarium at 21 gallons. The old rule of 1-2 pounds per gallon is overkill in my and many others opinions. It is a general guideline carried over from the days when we did not have the modern abilities of nutrient export. Your 17 pounds is plenty and probably more than you need. Too much rock and you will have very little room left in the aquarium. Try to keep the rock to what is needed and allow room for corals and other life forms.

Once you have decided on your rock layout, add water and sand if you are using it. Add some bacteria and ammonium sulfate to start the cycle (See Dr. Tims method). Test and after a few weeks when you have zero ammonia, zero nitrite and only nitrate present then you are ready to add a fish and get things going. Start slow and go slow, do not overwhelm you systems biofiltration ability....let the bacterial population keep pace and grow.

There are several threads on aquascaping you can search for- I'd suggest looking through some examples and deciding what you want to achieve. Then only use the rock needed for what you visually would like. In my opinion 1/2 pound per gallon or even less will do the job.

Here is a 14 gallon nano I had running in my office at work- it only has about 8 pounds of very porous light rock and it thrived.

Hope this helps

 

[Fredrik Andersson]

Wow really helpful answer! Then I will just rinse the stone

It was actually talking about curing the stones I think I understand the no2 cycling.

 

[CDavmd]

Glad to be of help. I'm actually in the process of finishing a new larger tank build. I am using Marco Rock. The tank is a reefer 425xl (112 gallons). I am only using 45 pounds of rock and about 40 pounds of sand. My plan is to seed it with Dr. Tims one and only and the ammonium sulfate. Once cycled, I will add some pods and a small piece of cured live rock from my current system to allow it to continue to increase in biodiversity. I will leave it like that for a few months and keep the lights off to avoid algae. Then I will turn on the lights, add 1 fish and a clean up crew and gradually increase the bioload over the next few months. This is just one way to do it.....you will find faster alternatives on R2R but I prefer very slow and steady.

Good luck!

 

[Fredrik Andersson]

Haha I'm already dreaming of a bigger tank But I'm only living on 40sqm so I dont have that much space

I will really consider your thoughts about how much LS I will have. The LS I bought is not nearly as good looking as the marco stone. So my plan is to use the LS stone and marco stone through the no2 cycle (I guess the new marco stone wont have any effect on the cycle) and after six weeks from now I maybe remove some of the uglier stones and have like 13 pounds of stone.

Do you think the Marco stone will have enough life after 6 w?

(PS sorry if my english is not perfect, it's not my native language)

 

[CDavmd]

Id suggest working on an aquascape while dry. Get it like you want. Then put it in the tank and position it in its final form. Put the current live rock in there with it and I'd probably go 8-10 weeks but thats just me. Then slowly remove one piece of rock at a time over a few weeks. You don't want to suddenly remove all that live rock.

 

[Ari_Ball]

Just cycle it for a week, and see what the water looks.