Curing Live/Ocean Rock

[schooncw]

I am interested in methods/opinions on curing Live Rock-actual fresh "live" rock from the Ocean. Is a fresh water dip advised, or will this kill off the biodiversity which I want to achieve, by using Live Rock in the first place.
Thanks.

 

[TriggerFinger]

I’ve had two shipments of live rock from kp aquatics and cured them in a 20g tank. I did a full water change everyday for the first few days and then let it be for 3-5 weeks. I didn’t have any undesirable hitchhikers except one large bristle worm and I pulled part of it out with forceps. If you get rock shipped in water then you won’t have hardly any die off and little to no ammonia. Mine being shipped in wet newspaper did have a bit of die off but I expected that.

 

[Clownfish2]

Curing live rock is not required. However, there will be some die off of animals and an ammonia spike when you submerge the rocks in saltwater. Test for ammonia and do water changes daily. My last shipment of live rock required almost 100% water changes for 5 days in a brute trashcan of saltwater. My rocks arrived in wet brown paper and still came with numerous marine life. I highly recommend KP aquatics.

 

[Reefing102]

I’ve had two shipments of live rock from kp aquatics and cured them in a 20g tank. I did a full water change everyday for the first few days and then let it be for 3-5 weeks. I didn’t have any undesirable hitchhikers except one large bristle worm and I pulled part of it out with forceps. If you get rock shipped in water then you won’t have hardly any die off and little to no ammonia. Mine being shipped in wet newspaper did have a bit of die off but I expected that.

This ^^^^

I also ordered from KP aquatics and had minimal die off (however I ordered their starter rock). I would also strongly discourage the freshwater dip as that would likely kill a lot of what you want on the rock

 

[schooncw]

Would a fresh water bath/soaking be advisable to remove pests? I have seen this advice and disagree strongly, as this-IMO-would decimate the biodiversity that the live rock was purchased for in the first place.

 

[Clownfish2]

Would a fresh water bath/soaking be advisable to remove pests? I have seen this advice and disagree strongly, as this-IMO-would decimate the biodiversity that the live rock was purchased for in the first place.

I caught a bunch of marine life out of the rocks by dunking the rocks aggressively into 5 gallon buckets: scallop, mantis shrimp, crabs, pistol shrimps, ribbon worm, bristle worms. I kept them all.

I read somewhere( I think KP aquatics website) that you can remove pests by submerging rocks in higher salinity water. I didn’t do this.

I think a FW dip would kill too much bacteria diversity on the rocks. That bacteria film prevents nuisance algae from growing and can add corals sooner.

 

[LRT]

Your going to get a bunch of different opinions as there are alot of different sources for ocean liverock that can range from a few months soak all the way up to 20 years growth or more like for example the premium rock from gulf live rock.
Doesn't matter where you get it from or how you "cycle" it id expect some die off during shipping and re acclimation. How long you have to "cycle" it will depend on how it was shipped, how long it sat out of water etc.
Having said that im not sure how much of an impact a 5-10 second rodi dip to 20 yr old live rock is really going to have? Other than maybe get some of those pesty shrimps and crabs mad enough to show themselves to remove them. I probably wouldn't dip the 3 month old soaked ocean water if that makes sense?
During "cycle" your going to want to watch for die off, scrub and remove any dead and decaying matter and perform water changes to keep ammonia down until it done "cycling".
"Curing" is a whole different ball game. Your going to want to watch your parameters. Keep Ph, Alk and nutrients maintained. Yes Ph and Alk especially if you get live rock covered with coraline, clams, oysters, corals, bivalves etc.
Hope this helps. Heres my gulf rock after about a yr "cure" in my system

 

[schooncw]

Your going to get a bunch of different opinions as there are alot of different sources for ocean liverock that can range from a few months soak all the way up to 20 years growth or more like for example the premium rock from gulf live rock.
Doesn't matter where you get it from or how you "cycle" it id expect some die off during shipping and re acclimation. How long you have to "cycle" it will depend on how it was shipped, how long it sat out of water etc.
Having said that im not sure how much of an impact a 5-10 second rodi dip to 20 yr old live rock is really going to have? Other than maybe get some of those pesty shrimps and crabs mad enough to show themselves to remove them. I probably wouldn't dip the 3 month old soaked ocean water if that makes sense?
During "cycle" your going to want to watch for die off, scrub and remove any dead and decaying matter and perform water changes to keep ammonia down until it done "cycling".
"Curing" is a whole different ball game. Your going to want to watch your parameters. Keep Ph, Alk and nutrients maintained. Yes Ph and Alk especially if you get live rock covered with coraline, clams, oysters, corals, bivalves etc.
Hope this helps. Heres my gulf rock after about a yr "cure" in my system

One person was recommending a crest water/hydrogen peroxide soaking for a few days. This seems crazy to me!

 

[schooncw]

Your going to get a bunch of different opinions as there are alot of different sources for ocean liverock that can range from a few months soak all the way up to 20 years growth or more like for example the premium rock from gulf live rock.
Doesn't matter where you get it from or how you "cycle" it id expect some die off during shipping and re acclimation. How long you have to "cycle" it will depend on how it was shipped, how long it sat out of water etc.
Having said that im not sure how much of an impact a 5-10 second rodi dip to 20 yr old live rock is really going to have? Other than maybe get some of those pesty shrimps and crabs mad enough to show themselves to remove them. I probably wouldn't dip the 3 month old soaked ocean water if that makes sense?
During "cycle" your going to want to watch for die off, scrub and remove any dead and decaying matter and perform water changes to keep ammonia down until it done "cycling".
"Curing" is a whole different ball game. Your going to want to watch your parameters. Keep Ph, Alk and nutrients maintained. Yes Ph and Alk especially if you get live rock covered with coraline, clams, oysters, corals, bivalves etc.
Hope this helps. Heres my gulf rock after about a yr "cure" in my system

One person was recommending a fresh water/hydrogen peroxide soaking for a few days. This seems crazy to me.

 

[LRT]

One person was recommending a crest water/hydrogen peroxide soaking for a few days. This seems crazy to me!

For rock plucked directly out ocean?
I've heard people taking dead rock and doing similar things but not ocean rock.

 

[KStatefan]

I am interested in methods/opinions on curing Live Rock-actual fresh "live" rock from the Ocean. Is a fresh water dip advised, or will this kill off the biodiversity which I want to achieve, by using Live Rock in the first place.
Thanks.

KP Aquatics has an optional high salinity dip to remove pest

"(Optional Step) Undesired critters (we really don’t like the word unwanted pests as every creature has a purpose in life) can be removed by submerging the live rock into a saltmix of 1.035 to 1.040 (Specific gravity) for one minute. You can leave it a little longer but it should do the trick for mantis shrimp, crabs and worms to vacate the rock. Please turn the live rock in the bucket for the salty saltwater to penetrate everywhere in the live rock. Afterwards you can evaluate which crabs to keep and which ones to permanently remove. You can repeat this step 2 to 3 times during the curing process (before, during and after). It will help with keeping the unwanted critters under control obviously it doesn’t guarantee 100% success but it should get very close to it."

 

[Clo]

One person was recommending a fresh water/hydrogen peroxide soaking for a few days. This seems crazy to me.

Doesn't this just kill the cycled rock w/ the h2o2

 

[schooncw]

Doesn't this just kill the cycled rock w/ the h2o2

IMO, the fresh water alone would kill live rock.

 

[Clo]

IMO, the fresh water alone would kill live rock.

Few day soak yea probably. Defeats the purpose of buying live ocean rock lol
People are funny

 

[LRT]

IMO, the fresh water alone would kill live rock.

Again if your only dipping for 5-10 seconds theres no possible way that can kill the entire 20 yr old population of bacteria or critters on or in the liverock. The picture of rock i posted earlier was taken out, regularly scrubbed, blasted with tapwater using high pressure shower nozzle(at system temp) for 5-15 seconds and put back in my system.
All that did for my rock was remove excess nutrients, nuisance algae and give coraline a fresh start to grow in those areas. In most cases overnight.

So many variables and levels to the rock game.

 

[Hadla]

I caught a bunch of marine life out of the rocks by dunking the rocks aggressively into 5 gallon buckets: scallop, mantis shrimp, crabs, pistol shrimps, ribbon worm, bristle worms. I kept them all.

I read somewhere( I think KP aquatics website) that you can remove pests by submerging rocks in higher salinity water. I didn’t do this.

I think a FW dip would kill too much bacteria diversity on the rocks. That bacteria film prevents nuisance algae from growing and can add corals sooner.

Any new pics of the mantis (if you still have him)?

 

[Clownfish2]

Any new pics of the mantis (if you still have him)?

Mantis is doing well. I put thawed mysis shrimp on the tip of a wooden skewer and he will strike it with quite a bit of force.

 

[t5Nitro]

Getting a 10 lbs piece of Kp aquatics shipped in water delivered today. Want to seed dry rock with it. Can I leave it circulating in basement without a light overhead and leave it room temp? 77 in the house upstairs, maybe 10 colder downstairs.