Curing live rock questions

[grimlock3000]

I have ~8 pounds of LR that has been curing in a 5g bucket for a bit over a week now. I bought this at a LFS the same day they took shipment of about 100 pounds of new LR. The rock was shipped to them in insulated boxes wrapped in wet towels. The LFS said I should treat it as uncured since they just got it and had not even checked it out for themselves. I bought four rocks total, three were from the new shipment and one was a rock they have had for weeks and no one wanted it. I have done two 50% water changes during this time and vacuumed of the rock and bottom of the bucket during each change. In the bucket I have a 175gph power head, and it is heated to 81F as well. The bucket really stunk for the first couple days, but barely has a scent now. I ran a 50/50 NO light over the bucket for about 12 hours a day the whole time.

Today I tested the ammonia level. It is ~0 on my FasTest kit. I checked again to be sure, same results.

At this point, I have a few options, not sure what to do. Here are my options.

1) Leave the rock in the bucket and let it be, check again in a few days.

2) Dump out all of the water in the bucket, refill with fresh saltwater, check again in a few days.

3) Add on piece to my tank and see how it goes. Then add the rest of the pieces one at a time.

4) Add all of the new rock to the tank.

Thoughts?

 

[scuba_steve]

i would add it all !

 

[grimlock3000]

It is too late now to mess with it, I will see how everything is tomorrow. For now, here are the rocks in the bucket (powerhead turned off):

I stuck all the rock in upside down, not much to see here

 

[quarryshark]

IMO a couple more days wouldn't hurt, if the ammonia is 0 again..then add it. Better safe than sorry.

 

[klam]

I would also wait a little bit more. Remember "only bad things happen fast in this hobby"

I usaully do a water change after I add the rocks. Than do another wc maybe 2-3 days later.

 

[grimlock3000]

I stuck in one rock from the bucket to test out in the tank. Seems good so far, I am going to retest the tank and the bucket and if both check out, I will add the rest of the rock. Feels good to start stacking rocks too, everything has been in a layer across the bottom until now:

The left and back rocks are going to stay where they are. The three remaining new rocks will go on the right and I am going to try and keep view of the Tonga rock already on the right. My snails will miss that big open area though.