Help with Dry Rock. Experts needed lol

[Jordan Siehr]

How do I cure Dry Rock? How long does it take to cure? As it cures do I keep it in my tank or a bucket. And if I keep it in my tank does the tank cycle while its curing? And how long after it cures can I add a hardy fish (Ocellaris Clownfish) ???? Help? lol oh: :attention:

 

[Loki]

In your instance all you would do is add it to your tank and let your tank cycle. There isn't really anything else to do. The cycle time should be about the same. It has a little dead stuff on it that would help kick off the cycle. Once your ammonia and nitrite read zero you are done cycling. I would start by adding a few snails and maybe a week after that add your clown.

 

[Jordan Siehr]

So that's it? lol I read that cycling rock is hard and you have to scrub it and stuff lol

 

[Loki]

Yeah with live rock you would scrub the dead stuff off. I haven't done that with dry rock. I think dry rock is better all the way around.

 

[Jordan Siehr]

oh okay I was worried it be hard and complicated and a hassle

 

[Chameleon]

yeah, dry rock worked great for me. I just put it in the tank and in a week the cycle was done. I also seeded with one piece of live rock straight from a tank, but the cycle was so minimal there was no die off. I highly recommend dry rock. I put fish in the tank after a week and a half. The benefit of dry rock is there is a lot less organic waste so cycling can be relatively short and hassle free when compared to live rock...especially live rock that has been shipped.

 

[Saltwatertaylor]

Cycling can take up to months so just make sure that you are patient and that all your paramaters are perfect before you add in the clownfish.
What size tank do you have?

 

[Jordan Siehr]

How big of a risk of bad "hitch hikers" is there with using live rock to seed the dry rock?

 

[Saltwatertaylor]

If you have a quarantine tank I would put the live rock in there first to see if there are some bad hitchhikers.

 

[Loki]

My cycle took 8 weeks. I didn't seed with live rock. I did buy pods and add them to the tank. I have yet to see a LFS that doesn't have aptasia or bubble algae or some form of pest on rocks they are willing to sell. I would skip the live all together unless you are able to get it from someone that doesn't have pests.

 

[H2O]

You need to cycle it right or you will have problems keeping par stable
Ones you have the dry rock in the tank with water running go to your local pet store ask them for two 2" dead salt water fish and throw them in there let them sit there til they r gone that will spike the amonia in your tank witch will start the cycle .
Do some reading . cycle will go faster if u add some rock from established tank all u need is small piece watch out for pest and don't rush anything

 

[H2O]

No live fish yet ones you do what I said wait 4 weeks get the water tested you looking for amonia 0 nitrate 0 ones u get there u can go fish shopping also go slow don't dump buckets of fish in there all at ones or the tank will have a crash .

 

[H2O]

Also when buying fish never add water from the pet store into your tank most stores have copper in the fish systems copper will mess up your tank and you won't be able to keep any coral . There's a lot of things that you need to look into go slow ask questions and read Google is your friend

 

[EcoFrags]

i've personally gotten pretty lucky with live rock in the past and have had no problems with even uncured live rock after a pretty bad episode of marine velvet and having to do my tank over again. If you do look there are a few things that claim to speed up curing and cycling time and they work fairly well but nothing is as certain and proven as time and if your lucky you can start to get some coraline algae growing to hinder some crazy hairline algae explosions as well. Every tank is different so good luck gotten some good advice up here already.

 

[TD2K]

I'm also seriously considering dry rock in my 225. I can seed it with a piece of live rock from my 55 gal tank (10 yrs old, covered in coraline).

Do I need lights during this time, or can I cycle while we build our lights?

 

[Loki]

You can cycle without lights. I cycled my tank with no lights. I did run my skimmer.

 

[Mufasa31]

If you start with dry rock, you can add a cup of sand from an established pest free tank once a week to speed up the cycle.

 

[Jordan Siehr]

If I put the dead fish in there wont it smell and get moldy? And how long would I have to QT the live rock frag before putting it in? And is there any way I can avoid using live rock altogether?

 

[BarbH]

If I put the dead fish in there wont it smell and get moldy? And how long would I have to QT the live rock frag before putting it in? And is there any way I can avoid using live rock altogether?

Using a dead fish like that is the same idea of using a piece of raw shrimp, myself I would personally not use the dead fish from the lfs my reasoning behind that it the fact that I don't know what the fish may have died from and what it may be carrying on it disease wise. The dry rock should have enough organics on it to be able to create a source of ammonia which is what you want to start cycling your tank. For Qting the live rock I would do so for a few days at least the idea is to observe anything that may be on the rock and eliminate any pests that may have hitchhiked in before they have a chance to get into your main tank. You could advoid using live rock and go completely with dry rock, the cycle process may be a little longer than if you where using live rock but you do eliminate the risks of pests getting into your system. When I started my tank I used all dry rock and my cycle took me a little under 8 weeks to complete.

 

[Loki]

Smell yes moldy no. It will just dissolve into nothing pretty much.

You don't have to use live rock at all. I have about 120 lbs of rock in my system and it was all dry rock.

The dead fish will be your ammonia source for your cycle.