what to remove from live rock?
 

Just finished reading an article on www.liveaquaria.com regarding how to clean/cure live rock. One part mentioned putting all the live rock in salt water with a gravity of 1.035-1.040 for a minute to take out unwanted pests like bristle worms, mantis shrimps and crabs. I just want to make sure that these are really things I want to take out. Furthermore, what should I put back in?

If you could also provide pics or links of pics of bristle worms, that'll be great. I have no idea what they are.

I've never dipped any new rock to get anything out, but this link might give you an idea of what to keep.

http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/index.html

Re: what to remove from live rock?
 

Here are 2 pics. Enjoy:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...ms+and+picture

Let's see people eat these on Fear Factor. :lol: :biggrin: Imagine a 12" worm with bristles crawling around in your stomach.

what do you guys do when you buy new live rock?

Oh my god! that one pic with all the worms!!!! dear lord!~

well what i do if the rock is cured is, toss it into my tank. If it isn't then i set up a rubbermad tank for it and cure it there with skimmer on it.

Yup, that's about it.

So what does people prefer to purchase when setting up a tank? cured or uncured? Do you gets a lot more 'life' from uncured that is lost when its cured by . . .whoever. (crabs, snails, worms???)

Wilty, given the choice, I would cure my own. If you're just starting up, this is easy. You have more control over lighting and water changes and I believe this increases the amount of life to survive. It's also a bit cheaper, but remember salt water costs money to cure it with, so savings might not be realized.
If you're more the wash and wear type, buy cured and away you go!!

Why bother manually curing rock if it's going into a new/uncycled tank? Why not just throw it in.