Curing Dry Rock

[riceboy]

When i cured my dry rock i just simply added it to my tank, i mean there is nothing to die off and no pests in the rock to cure it. Your simply just trying to seed it with your live rock and make it into live rock. In my 82 gallon build I basically took the shelf rocks i got from tony, drilled and made a structure that i liked and put it into my tank with my existing live rock (note to self throw away rock with aiptasia ) and never had an algea bloom cause there was nothing to die of on the rocks.

[Enigma]

Some of this stuff definitely needs cured/cooked out of the main display system! Dry rock can be like adding a phosphate bomb to your tank. I've used it three times without curing . . . never again. I've had huge GHA issues twice.

[lpsreefer]

With eco rock it's tuff sometimes as you don't know how long it's been stored and how. Or for that matter how many times it's been store in places. Ie warehouse, back rooms, store fronts.
Dust or people touching always better to play it safe!

[Doug]

Originally Posted by riceboy

When i cured my dry rock i just simply added it to my tank, i mean there is nothing to die off and no pests in the rock to cure it. Your simply just trying to seed it with your live rock and make it into live rock. In my 82 gallon build I basically took the shelf rocks i got from tony, drilled and made a structure that i liked and put it into my tank with my existing live rock (note to self throw away rock with aiptasia ) and never had an algea bloom cause there was nothing to die of on the rocks.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=89284

Does not always work that way. I added mine as you mentioned.

[mseepman]

The new dry rock has no bacterial way to fight off the invasive algae's, so they tend to get them more easily, just like in Doug's situation.

[Coasting]

I boiled mine for a good 20 mins because I read that topic. Just added it to a salt water bin with biomax media I was storing in my SW canister filter. No idea what I'm doing but I hope that adds some good stuff to the dry rock and the boiling helped get rid of stuff I didn't want.

Wouldn't it be better to cure longer in sw then fresh so you get the sw bacteria you want?

[pseudonym]

Well.. I am going to ask an obvious question that it seems no one has thought of.. or maybe I am missing something.

Why buy dead rock manufactured rock and then seed it for the same cost as already live manufactured rock??

http://www.ecoliverock.org/

Not only is it cheap, but all profits go to reef conservation. It is Canadian and shipping is even free and included in the cost. Unless dead rock is waaay cheaper than $2.80/lbs with shipping, there doesn't seem to be a point in using it.

[Enigma]

Originally Posted by pseudonym

Why buy dead rock manufactured rock and then seed it for the same cost as already live manufactured rock??

Pests. I don't want live rock. Ever. Not under any circumstance. I did start my first tank with live rock as I wasn't aware of any other options. I won't use it again: aqua-cultured or not.

I have introduced some pests through corals. That's just the way it is. Live rock can be a really significant source, however. It freaks me out putting a coral that is on a rock in my tank. I wish I could remove the coral first, but that isn't always possible.

[Coasting]

I like the fact that with dry rock, I know what "critters" are in/on the rock. My dry rock was still cheaper.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Coasting

I like the fact that with dry rock, I know what "critters" are in/on the rock. My dry rock was still cheaper.

What I like about live rock is that after 6 months, I'm still finding new critters. And reading this thread now, I'd never use dry rock. Sounds like a bit of a hassle. "IF" there was something in/on a rock that was going to eat my head, it sounds a lot easier to remove that rock than to go through all this "curing" for dry....no? And honestly, in all my years of live rock use, I had "pests" once that took 20 minutes to deal with, and was kinda fun doing it.

I guess I just don't get the dry rock crowd