Do I need to cure clean dry rock

[jasonrusso]

So in the near future I am upgrading my 150 fowler to a 225. Years ago when I bought a complete set-up, the guy gave me 3 Rubbermaid bins of "live" rock. I used alot of it in my 150, I gave some to friends (no regrets, lol), and the rest has been in my attic. Yesterday, I pulled the rest out and I put it in a bin with a heater and circulator pump. So that rock is "curing." I'll add some bacteria this week.

I also bought 30 pounds of clean dry rock from reef cleaners. Now he says: It has been professionally cleaned and dried after a long soak in a deep water well to prevent leaching of phosphates. This rock is free of organics except the dust that may settle on it during transport. Because of this it can be added to an established tank without causing a cycle. In my opinion, I can just toss this into the aquarium after a dust rinse. It will grow its own organisms. I am going to be swapping over all my current live rock and sand. Am I on in thinking this, or do need to cure the dry rock as well.

https://www.reefcleaners.org/aquarium-store/florida-reef-rock-30lbs-free-shipping

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

Should be no need to cure it if it is really clean and dry. If you have any doubts, then run it through the curing cycle.

 

[ahiggins]

I've never heard of that kind of dry rock lol

 

[ClearRain]

There's no need to cure dry rock. You cure fresh live rock so that you don't get die off of organisms in your tank and cause a spike. Dry rock doesn't have organisms that will die off, thus no curing. Give it a rinse and put it in the tank.

 

[nervousmonkey]

yeah, you're fine. Just put it in the tank. Rain and AllSigns are 100% correct. No organisms, no die off, no ammonia spike, no cycle, just put it in and let it establish the good bacteria. I wouldn't consider it ready to process nitrogenous waste at this point, but it will be fine.

 

[Idoc]

There's no need to cure dry rock. You cure fresh live rock so that you don't get die off of organisms in your tank and cause a spike. Dry rock doesn't have organisms that will die off, thus no curing. Give it a rinse and put it in the tank.

I would argue that the exception to this line of thinking is purchasing dry Pukani rock. It is loaded with organic material that is very difficult to see and remove. I recently purchased some and cured it for about 5-6 weeks...the first week, the cure process smelled terrible from all the organic material rehydrating and then beginning to decompose (and that was after I went over it trying to remove every bit of loose sponge, etc... I could see within the crevices). It basically went through a cycle actually...and the phosphates were extremely high...so ended up curing with a bag of Phosguard, which I changed out about every 4-5 days...which did a good job of decreasing the leaching phosphates. Once I could remove the phosguard and obtain basically zero phosphate readings, I stopped the cure and removed the rock to completely dry again so I could focus on my aquascaping...which I'm in the process of working with now.

But others have told me that I could have put the Pukani directly into my tank and actually used the "rehydration and decomposition" of the organic material to induce my tanks bacterial cycle... But, I believe removing as much of the phosphates ahead of time probably was the wiser choice to limit the algae growth during my tank's bacterial cycle!

 

[ClearRain]

I can understand curing Punkani. That just looks like you took fresh LR and let it dry.

 

[LardLad]

My buddy gave me about 50 lb of dry Rock that he had once used in a large reef tank several years ago before he quit the hobby. For the last 5 or 10 years it's been out in his yard as yard ornaments and he has been Mowing and weed whacking around them. When he gave them to me I couldn't believe it because it was some of the most beautiful Rock I had ever seen in my life it had been harvested in the ocean in the old days. There were large acropora fossils on it , fossilized sponges and so much detail it was unbelievable. But it was also covered with tire marks and grass clippings and green stains from lawn mowing along with various wasp nests and tons of junk. So I put it in the back of my pickup truck and blasted it for several minutes with my Honda power washer. It brightened right up and turned from dark gray and green back into white and the power washer also took most of the junk out of the crevices and softened some of the sharp edges. I let it soak overnight in freshwater then tooled it up into the shapes I wanted dipped in some salt water for a few hours then put it in the tank. So long story short it went from someone's yard ornament to my gorgeous reef tank in less than 24 hours. It was awesome. no phosphate or nitrate leaching that was detectable and an absolutely beautiful display.