Did I Buy Uncured Rock?

[Beverly]

Okay, I think I know how to tell if rock is uncured or not. You bring it home, put it in saltwater with a running pump, let it sit there 3-4 days, then test the water for ammonia and nitrite, and nitrate if you're thinking you're lucky enough to find any so early on in the curing process.

Well, that's what I did. Bought 7 lbs of rock with great coralline algae on Wed., put it in a bucket of new saltwater (didn't have any changewater handy) and a running pump. Tested the water today and ammonia is 0 ppm, nitrite shows barely above 0 ppm, nitrate 0 ppm.

Now, to me, this rock is so close to being cured I'd call it cured. But it can't be cured unless it sat around the lfs so long that it cured on their premisis.

What do you all think? Cured, uncured? Am I outta my ever-lovin' mind to not know the difference here???

TIA.

[robbyville]

Hi Beverly,

Well it certainly sounds as if the rock is cured! Actually I almost always buy pre-cured rock with no problems. Still, always better safe than sorry, keep it in the water for a couple of days, check for smell, and the usual suspects, and plunk that sucker in!

Besides, depending on the size of the tank and the inhabitants of course, a 7 pound of ALMOST cured rock might not make a huge difference.

Good luck!

Rob

[Aquattro]

Bev, generally cured smells like ocean, uncured smells like sewage. You can smell the difference.

[Beverly]

[quote="robbyville"]Still, always better safe than sorry, keep it in the water for a couple of days, check for smell, and the usual suspects, and plunk that sucker in!

Besides, depending on the size of the tank and the inhabitants of course, a 7 pound of ALMOST cured rock might not make a huge difference.[quote]

Hi Rob,

Actually, some of the rock is going into our 14 gal seahorse tank, so I want it good and cured.

Did the smell test and it doesn't smell like sewage, so maybe it's good and cured. Was at the lfs where I bought it today, and they say they've had that rock shipment in the tank for about a month and should be cured by now. I'm tending to agree.

Am going to wait as long as I can hold off, but I'm pretty antsy to rearrange the horse tank. But will test the water and do the smellarooni test again before "plunking that sucker in" :cool:

Actually found a 4" worm of some sort on the biggest of the new LR, though not a bristleworm, and took it off the rock. Just as I dropped it into the 42 gal, our hawkfish grabbed it in mid-water! I'm thinking I don't know what this worm is, so how does the hawkfish know? He gobbled it right down. What a fish :eek: Watched him all last night and this morning and, man, he must know his worms cuz he's still alive and kickin'

Thanks, all, for the feedback :smile:

[Quinn]

is there really a clear line between cured and uncured? i figured cured meant "everything that will die off, has died off and been broken down by other critters". wouldn't it be possible for rock to be half cured, three-quarters cured, or 95.4% cured?

[Beverly]

is there really a clear line between cured and uncured? i figured cured meant "everything that will die off, has died off and been broken down by other critters". wouldn't it be possible for rock to be half cured, three-quarters cured, or 95.4% cured?

Cured rock, ime, is rock that leaves no ammonia or nitrite in the water. That would indicate all the dead stuff has already been processed by bacteria that has colonized the rock during the curing process. In this case, the rock was in the lfs's tank for a month or so.

However, perhaps it is possible that there's enough bacteria on the rock to be processing the little bit of dead stuff still on the rock.

Good point, and one worth considering.

BTW, last night before going to bed, I again tested the water in the bucket where the new rock is, and ammonia and nitrite are both 0 ppm.