curing dry rock
 

this is well a recipe for curing dry rock from fijireefrock.com
as I have been testing for the last few month with it not to bore you with the different techniques let get started with what I found works as best and shortest timing possible.Please feel free to add or discuss any view for any type of dry rocks curing on this post to help everyone,...

Played equally with all the 4 types of dry rock (Pukani,fiji premiun,Tonga shelf and Tonga branch) in different styles of vats.

4 vats containing separatly each type of dry rock
2 vats with mix of all types of dry rock

lets talk about the 4 vats 1st
all 4 vats where setup in the warehouse with tap water and salinity of 1.24ppm temperature between 82 and 84 degree with couple of power heads for circulation. No water change or skimmer at all.Total darkness with only ambient day light.
let it sit for a week and tested for ammonia witch was over 8 believing much higher test readout.
XX Over skimmed my reef system from home then added roughly 2 cups of fresh skim-mate to each vat on day 7.
Kept checking for tap top off every 4 days and testing ounce a week...
On week 3 tested 0 for ammonia witch I thought too early then tested with couple kits and still readout at 0 yes the water had a yellow tinge to it.
From that time until now I still feed the rock with fresh ski-mate as I do not want to kill the nytrifying bacteria and still readout at 0.
I then decided to bring couple hundred lbs to add to my fully loaded system that contains roughly 500lbs of old live rock.
Placed some in the sump and some in the display with no issues going on 3 weeks now and amazingly no algae or diatom outbreak.(my lighting consist of only royal blue spectrum LED with only 2 hours of whites a day.

Conclusion 3 weeks in the dark with nothing more that growing nitrifying bacteria and seeded with skimmer bacteria:biggrin: ready for a system.

2 vats curing in my home next to my main system one vat directly plumbed to my sump and the other vat on its own.

1st vat directly to my system
Nothing special besides making sure in the dark, the temperature is at 82 degree and one power-head for circulation.Oh yes about 140lbs of mixed dry reef rock in that vat.
I kept adding HC-GFO and carbon to my system nothing more. Testing ammonia witch gave a reading of .25 for day 3 to day 6.Every day after that readout of 0 ammonia 3 weeks ago.The rock is ready for main system.

Conclusion after I suggest and to be on the safer side 10 days of a ratio of 3lbs live to 1 lb of mix dry frock it is safe to be used on a system.

2nd vat 100 glns sitting near my main system
About 100 lbs of mix dry rock in the dark,one power head temperature of 82 degree no skimming salinity of 1.24ppm
after 3 day tested ammonia of over 8 as I suspected.
I would remove every night remove one gallon of the vat water place it in my system and replace it with water again from my system.
Did that for 10 days as on day 8 ammonia readout of 0 kept testing everyday different timing and always got readout of 0.
Now I replace 2 gallons of that water with main system water ounce every week and keeping all that rock for my new build:biggrin:


Any and all dry rock need cycling time and patience takes a very important role in this as I seen people buy my dry rocks place it in a system and have it cycling with full lights on as it will be loaded with algae and have much longer curing process of ugly green rocks to go through.

There are lots of different methods for curing the dry frock but I found the above to be most effective.

I don't recommend using any additives to try and speed up the curing process as I always believed the natural way tops all.

Thanks Eli. So I should cycle in the tubs its in now compared with my tank? Would one not then loose the bacterial colony after removing the rock for a dry build and shape in the main tank? I imagine it needs to go into a tank of water direct from the tubs.

I'll be honest, I rinsed my rocks and dumped them in.

30-40lbs dry rock
100+ existing established rock
230gallon + sump

No problems, no breakouts, etc. Mua ha ha. Mind you I have a tiny bioload in the system, only a couple of clowns and a handful of chromis.

I'd be more interested in the phosphate readings after 3 weeks.

I have my Pukani curing with a few pieces of new live rock. The two 30% water changes so far have come out pee yellow. I'm wishing I'd kept a little HOB skimmer for this process. Hopefully my new 150 gallon Concept tank will be here soon and I can move the rock to cure in a larger volume of water.

The rock looks fantastic BTW. Can't wait to get aquascaping!

Good read wish I read this a few years ago :)

the only reason I cured my dry frock in a tub is because I ran out of tanks :biggrin:

you could by all means after after curing place it dry and play with the rock
for as long as needed till you get the look you need.
I am planning to adding the water from the tub to the main system when its time to move the rock.
Nitrifying bacteria has a better survival rate out in the open with wet rock
than any other pod simply of their size.

:thumb:

Following it exactly, except I had it in fresh mixing for the last couple weeks. Moved it to a large container today. Added salt. Bringing temp up and mixing with two powerheads. Took a pic today also.

I added a bunch of the fiji to my branching , shelf and pukani. That fiji is nice yo. Man I put a few beauties in the tub. Beautiful shape and holes. I think I need a large tank :D

well get longer tank doug you know the drill

That is one big reason I upgraded my tank. So I can use there awesome rocks :)

I know. Either put most of it in my 50g oldstyle or best I need a 120G. :D

I wanna use it all. Eli sent me some of the best rock I have ever seen. And as you know, I have seen my fair share of different reef rock in the last 30yrs. :lol:

I may have made one boo-boo following Eli,s instructions. I added a small cup of skimmate tonight from my Tunze. Now I see it was on day 7..whoops....:lol:

Was wonder if I could use water change water instead of skimmate. The pod population would be a bonus after cycle , no?

If a larger tank you want check Concept or in the next month or so come and take my 180 peninsula,...

on another note Why don't you put some of the rock that doesn't fit in your display in you sump still works as best filtration.

on another post I mentioned that I have few hundred lbs in my sump for years and that gives me a soup of all types of pods to feed my NPS,...

of course you could use the water from changes,...I used similar style in vat #2

I have done phosphates tests I will post results as soon as I get back from the warehouse tomorrow,...

I kept testing the phosphates from my system with the rocks cycling in there with results of 0 phosphates that maybe results of the pod soup I keep in one of my sumps..:biggrin:

The sump & refugium is my current plan Eli, BUT, I may just call Denny. :smile:

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...=102086&page=7

Its on the go Eli. Except for the early tiny bit of skimmate dump, exactly as you have suggested. I have to go find an ammonia test kit however. Never owned one of those for 30yrs.

I know what you mean as I went and started buying those test kits almost a year ago as I started testing on the rocks...lol

you could siphon some of your sand tank water and place it in the tank with your rocks...for more and different bacteria growth,...

The readout of phosphates throughout the curing process was sitting at 0.8 to 0.9 ppm
As I ran HC-gfo after the initial curing and now getting 0 readout.
Phosphates never played a role intu the bacteria growth for the curing process.

Eli,

Any concerns with running Carbon and HC-GFO from day 1 of curing the rock in the tank? Or should I wait before adding those 2 online?

There really is no issues running them from days one except it's a waste of money in my opinion.

Heater failed...
 

I tried to do the same thing for my dry rocks, everything was going well but after 7 days last night my heater holder failed, heater went into the water and thermostat failed! Finally temperture went up to 90 For 4-5 hours

Now what? Should I start everything again? I ordered a new submersible heater.

I wouldnt worry about it IMHO, if you have nothing in there you arent going to hurt anything. just think of it as a very hot day and the tide was out in shallow water.