Curing rock

[Jvesche20]

I recently got rock from a guy who some how managed to get 157 lbs rock and he’s into freshwater. So I traded him some equipment for it because he wasn’t going to use it. I’m about to go on vacation soon for 2 weeks and I wanted to see what my options where before I left. So currently I have a 6ft long tang and I have 3ft that’s looking good with the rock and the other half looks awful because I didn’t have enough rock to make anything for that side. With that being said I made a new structure for this half. Tell me what you think!

My question is since this rock has been out of the water for some time now do I need to cure it? Anything living on it is now dead. Can I just throw it in my tank or do I neee to place it in a bucket full of saltwater and let it sit for a month? I’ve seen the live aquatica post and it said to keep changing the water 2 times a week but I’ll be gone on vacation for 2 weeks and can’t change the water. It would be awesome if I can start this process now so when I’m gone it’s curing and I will have less time to wait when I get back.

 

[biophilia]

If the rock has been out of water for a significant length of time such that anything living on it is now dead and decaying, it's perfectly fine to use it to cycle the tank. No reason to "cure it" separately. The dead organic matter on it will produce ammonia as it decays which will form the basis of the nitrogen cycle that you want to get established. The "changing the water x times per week" thing is essentially just done so as to keep ammonia from getting "too high" (e.g. over 2ppm) in order to preserve any living creatures that might be present on live rock in a new tank, but you don't need to worry about that since it's been out of water for a long time,

I'd stick it in the water and make sure the water is properly aerated and heated while you're gone. When you come back, check ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels. If ammonia is over 2ppm at that point you can do a water change to bring it back down if you want to attempt to speed up the cycle, but is not a requirement. If you want to further speed things up, set the heater to 82F or so while you're gone which will slightly increase the rate of nitrifying bacteria colonization.

 

[Jvesche20]

If the rock has been out of water for a significant length of time such that anything living on it is now dead and decaying, it's perfectly fine to use it to cycle the tank. No reason to "cure it" separately. The dead organic matter on it will produce ammonia as it decays which will form the basis of the nitrogen cycle that you want to get established. The "changing the water x times per week" thing is essentially just done so as to keep ammonia from getting "too high" (e.g. over 2ppm) in order to preserve any living creatures that might be present on live rock in a new tank, but you don't need to worry about that since it's been out of water for a long time,

I'd stick it in the water and make sure the water is properly aerated and heated while you're gone. When you come back, check ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels. If ammonia is over 2ppm at that point you can do a water change to bring it back down if you want to attempt to speed up the cycle, but is not a requirement. If you want to further speed things up, set the heater to 82F or so while you're gone which will slightly increase the rate of nitrifying bacteria colonization.

Alright so your suggestion is to add it to a bucket and heat it and I have a spare power head that I’ll throw in so it will aerate the water. How long should I leave this in here for?

When you said if the rock has been out of the water for a significant length of time and fine to cycle the tank what do you mean by this? My tank is established and been running for quiet some time now I just didn’t like the one half of my current rock work. So would I be fine just throwing it in there or do I need to add it in the water I’m a little confused with that part because you mention both in your post.

 

[biophilia]

Alright so your suggestion is to add it to a bucket and heat it and I have a spare power head that I’ll throw in so it will aerate the water. How long should I leave this in here for?

When you said if the rock has been out of the water for a significant length of time and fine to cycle the tank what do you mean by this? My tank is established and been running for quiet some time now I just didn’t like the one half of my current rock work. So would I be fine just throwing it in there or do I need to add it in the water I’m a little confused with that part because you mention both in your post.

Ahhh, okay. Wasn't clear that your tank is up and running with livestock in it already. In that case, adding all of it to the tank now would likely cause an ammonia spike by overwhelming your established tank with too much dead/decaying matter all at once. If you want to avoid causing a mini cycle in your established tank you could keep the new rock in a heated bucket with an air stone or powerhead in it while you're gone to start the cycling process on the new rocks. Adding a few rocks from your established tank to the bucket would help seed the new rock if that's an option. Then test the bucket when you get back to see where you're at. Even if the new rock is not 100% cycled when you get back you can always add a few pieces at a time to your tank over the course of a couple weeks. The important thing is just to avoid dumping it in all at once. Hope that makes sense.

 

[Jvesche20]

Ahhh, okay. Wasn't clear that your tank is up and running with livestock in it already. In that case, adding all of it to the tank now would likely cause an ammonia spike by overwhelming your established tank with too much dead/decaying matter all at once. If you want to avoid causing a mini cycle in your established tank you could keep the new rock in a heated bucket with an air stone or powerhead in it while you're gone to start the cycling process on the new rocks. Adding a few rocks from your established tank to the bucket would help seed the new rock if that's an option. Then test the bucket when you get back to see where you're at. Even if the new rock is not 100% cycled when you get back you can always add a few pieces at a time to your tank over the course of a couple weeks. The important thing is just to avoid dumping it in all at once. Hope that makes sense.

Awesome that clears things up. One last question this one might sound stupid but do I have to keep the rock in saltwater? I have about 40 gallons of RODI water waiting for the Rock to be added. I just don’t see why I would need to add the saltwater if there’s nothing living.

 

[biophilia]

Awesome that clears things up. One last question this one might sound stupid but do I have to keep the rock in saltwater? I have about 40 gallons of RODI water waiting for the Rock to be added. I just don’t see why I would need to add the saltwater if there’s nothing living.

There are no stupid questions! As far as I'm aware, the strains of nitrifying bacteria in saltwater are closely related, but a slightly different than freshwater. So cycling it partially in freshwater for a few weeks while you're gone and then transferring to saltwater would possibly build up bacteria on the rock only to kill a portion of it off again when transferring to your tank. Some of the bacteria may survive so it may be better than doing nothing at all, but IMO it's best to just do it right with saltwater to begin with.

Do you have any idea how much dead matter is actually on the rock? If it doesn't smell or have obvious decaying stuff on it, you could probably just hose it off really well and let it soak in some freshwater while you're gone to allow anything else on it to leach out. Cycling it separately is mostly just necessary if it's smelly or has obvious decaying matter on it that will break down into ammonia when introduced to the tank. If it looks and smells like clean, dry rock, soaking it in freshwater while you're gone and adding it to the tank when you get back is no big deal.

 

[Jvesche20]

There are no stupid questions! As far as I'm aware, the strains of nitrifying bacteria in saltwater are closely related, but a slightly different than freshwater. So cycling it partially in freshwater for a few weeks while you're gone and then transferring to saltwater would possibly build up bacteria on the rock only to kill a portion of it off again when transferring to your tank. Some of the bacteria may survive so it may be better than doing nothing at all, but IMO it's best to just do it right with saltwater to begin with.

Do you have any idea how much dead matter is actually on the rock? If it doesn't smell or have obvious decaying stuff on it, you could probably just hose it off really well and let it soak in some freshwater while you're gone to allow anything else on it to leach out. Cycling it separately is mostly just necessary if it's smelly or has obvious decaying matter on it that will break down into ammonia when introduced to the tank. If it looks and smells like clean, dry rock, soaking it in freshwater while you're gone and adding it to the tank when you get back is no big deal.

To me it doesn’t smell bad. But to my girlfriend she thinks it smells like fish. But anything I do with my aquarium she says smells bad. I don’t smell anything out of the ordinary. Is there a way to tell how much dead stuff is on this rock? Only thing that I can tell that’s on it is salt from when the water thay was on it evaporated.