Greetings from Northern Virginia

[Schraufabagel]

 

[Jennifer405]

Welcome and RUN

Nah just kidding
I'm only 4 months in with a 30 gal and love my little world I made.
Challenges abound and much to learn.

I'm really leaning towards the "go big or go home" tank size (150-200g). Not exactly the same, but I dug a small pond in my backyard in 2019 and then immediately regretted not making it bigger which was a common regret in lessons-learned from other pond owners. I just thought I had properly compensated...nope. So I was out there again in 2020 making it bigger and investing in a temporary holding pool for fish, a new pump, a new liner and trying to make my waterfall skimmer work for a larger pond. Twice the price, twice the work, and exponentially more hassle. Again, I may be wrong to apply that lesson here, but it's a factor in my thinking.

 

[muzikalmatt]

Welcome to Reef2Reef! I'd say the best advice is to take things slow and enjoy the ride!

 

[Jimbhoy13]

Welcome to R2R and the salty world Jen. Lots of knowledgeable and helpful people here who will support and advise you when needed.

 

[Sleeping Giant]

Welcome to R2R

 

[Grumblez]

Hello welcome. My advice is don't watch 52 weeks of reefing and do watch the 5 minute guides. The 52 weeks is somewhat outdated and more information than you need.

Also you don't have to "cure" rocks unless they where live rock shipped to you from the ocean not fully submerged in water.
You can cure dry rock the major plus is it will help your rock get a biofilm/cycle. The big negative is if you have an elaborate aquascape in mine that will require cement or glue it's much easier to do out of the water. Its also much easier to stack/design your aquascape out of the water dry.

 

[Jennifer405]

Hello welcome. My advice is don't watch 52 weeks of reefing and do watch the 5 minute guides. The 52 weeks is somewhat outdated and more information than you need.

Also you don't have to "cure" rocks unless they where live rock shipped to you from the ocean not fully submerged in water.
You can cure dry rock the major plus is it will help your rock get a biofilm/cycle. The big negative is if you have an elaborate aquascape in mine that will require cement or glue it's much easier to do out of the water. Its also much easier to stack/design your aquascape out of the water dry.

What I was wondering is if you lose all the benefits of curing them if I pulling them out to work on aquascaping right before putting water in the tank? Is there some sort of accepted clock on how long they can be out of water? Said differently, if they go dry then are all the benefits lost?

 

[tharbin]

What I was wondering is if you lose all the benefits of curing them if I pulling them out to work on aquascaping right before putting water in the tank? Is there some sort of accepted clock on how long they can be out of water? Said differently, if they go dry then are all the benefits lost?

I actually don't know of any benefit to curing today's dry rock other than removing dust, etc. If you plan to glue your aquascape it will be MUCH easier and sturdier with dry rock. The wet or even damp rock does not bond nearly as well to each other. Build your aquascape with dry rock, let it sit and cure for at least 24 hours, then just soak the completed aquascape sections to remove excess glue, rock dust, etc. and put in the tank. Until you add bacteria either directly or indirectly through food/livestock you aren't really 'curing' the rock.

A lot of 'rock' that was used historically was of questionable origin and soaking it could leach out all kinds of impurities that today's Marco, Stax, or Moani etc. don't have. They are quarried ancient reefs.

You needed to cure wet rock, that is not really a thing today but it was live rock shipped in damp newspaper. You needed to clean it of all of the die-off that happened during transport.

There was also base rock (same as today's quarried dry rock but taken directly from the coral reef rubble zones) or 'cured' or 'seed' rock at some LFSs that were basically base rock that was put into vats at the LFSs and 'cured'. The base rock needed to be cured as it was not cleaned before shipping so there was a lot of decayed matter in it.

Then the best thing to do with cured rock or live rock (shipped in water) was to put it in bins for a while to see what grew or crawled out and check it occasionally for additional die-off.

Live rock can actually be added right to a tank and does not need to be cured and the tank will already be cycled to a significant degree.

The difference is that cured rock and live rock have beneficial bacterial populations. Dry rock is--dry. It needs to be populated by bacterial through some means. Today that usually means either bottled bacteria/ammonium chloride or some live rock seed. The days of the sacrificial damsel are thankfully mainly behind us.

I could be all wrong depending on whose definitions of curing you are following but if they dry enough to bond well, you will have lost most, but not all of the bacteria. If you are just soaking them in water, at best you may leach a little something but they are not 'curing'. With no food source (fish food/fish waste/ammonium chloride) the bacteria will not appear.

 

[jtp7004ft]

Welcome

 

[Grumblez]

Most of the Bacteria can survive for quite a long time as long as it doesn't go totally dry.
T

Like the other guy said on my last set up I soaked the rocks in tap water for a day and then rinsed them to get sand out of them.

If you want to start your cycle in a trashcan while you wait just buy a small bottle of any bacteria like micribacter 7 or Fritz turbo start and add it. It might help some depending on how long you do it but probably not worth the ekffort. The general consensus from propr on here is if you add bottle bacteria you should be good to add 1 or 2 small fish as soon as your water has cleared up

 

[Chrisfish]

Welcome to R2R, glad you joined us!!

 

[Manny’s Reef]

Hello and welcome to R2R. Glad to have you here.

 

[Kiwi reefer]

Welcome to R2R

 

[Fish Think Pink]

Hello,

I'm so new to the hobby I haven't made a single purchase. I'm trying to do as much research as possible before getting the tank, but I think I'm going to go ahead and start curing MarcoRocks while I figure things out. I've been binge watching BRS how-to and tip videos in addition to reading R2R threads. Would welcome any suggestions or lessons learned from when you were starting out.

Thanks
Jen

Hi Jen and Welcome! Glad you joined. I'm Lisa. Doing research always pays off! This site has lots of good info.

Have you considered starting your build thread? I found its a great place to document my tank's evolution for myself. I started tank first then joined, so I'm still finding myself going back collecting pictures & updating historically as well as current state. Once you create your first post in your thread and link it to your account, they will give you build badge (look left, under my ID)

This is a good reference book type online article I still review (same as post #4):

The Supreme Guide To Setting Up A Saltwater Reef Aquarium

This article was sponsored by @MarineDepot at www.marinedepot.com. Introduction The marine environment is one of the most complex systems on the planet. The aquarium you are about to set up is only a tiny sliver of the vast ocean, but it is no...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[attiland]

Hello,

I'm so new to the hobby I haven't made a single purchase. I'm trying to do as much research as possible before getting the tank, but I think I'm going to go ahead and start curing MarcoRocks while I figure things out. I've been binge watching BRS how-to and tip videos in addition to reading R2R threads. Would welcome any suggestions or lessons learned from when you were starting out.

Thanks
Jen

Welcome to R2R