Is It OK to add uncured LR?

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HipHopOpotamus

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Jun 2, 2009
Messages
6
Location
Santa Monica, CA
Well, I've had a tank for two months and I have about 11 lbs of cured LR in my 11 gal tank. I recently realized that I have a decent amount of room in my HOB for some rubble. I was curious if it was ok to add uncured LR into an established tank because at my work I can get uncured LR for 1.50$ as opposed to 5$ per pound for cured. I'm just wondering because I heard you needed to cure it first. i don't think i would put more than a few lbs in my HOB.
 
I think you should cure it, because uncured live rock will definitely have die-off in the curing process. When things die, they decay, when things decay, they produce ammonia. Ammonia as im sure you already know if toxic to fish. Cure the rock first, or get the cured rock. If you have room in your filter, then im sure you wouldnt need more than a couple pounds. So either cure it yourself and go cheaper, or just spend the extra money so you dont have to wait through the curing process to put it in your tank.
 
I think that base rock needs to go through a curing process as well. Theres really no way around it lol. And yes, base rock in a tank with live rock will become live overtime. It will take alot of time for base rock to become live, but it will become live eventually.
 
dang, well thanks for the advice though. i have work tomorrow so i suppose i'll just go for the fully cured LR instead. I'm just trying to save up a little extra money for some corals. . .
 
Well hey, i mean, if you have the time to cure the LR yourself, which really isnt that hard, then go for it. It would be a good experience for you as well so just incase you need to do it in the future, or you just want to know how. All you need is like a small rubbermaid container, since your not getting THAT much rock, and if you have an extra powerhead, just to keep the flow going, and a heater to keep it warm obviously. Leave the rock in the container with everything on i think for like a week or something.. not 100% sure on the time for curing, but i think its either a week or two weeks. Hope someone could chime in and correct me on this one if its wrong.

Or.. get the fully cured rock. xD
 
Hmmm, do you have sand as a substrate?
I don't want to go against others here, but you can probably add about half to a pound of the base, and test your water.
Depending on the base you can get some dried out critters that can cause a spike. You could test it by putting it in a bucket with a heater and ph some SW and let it sit for a few days, if you don't see an ammonia spike you could add it to your filter.
 
I tend to agree. Base rock is just that... rock only. Nothing live. We added about 15 lbs of base rock to the 20 lbs of established LR and 10 lbs. of new (but cured LR) when we moved from a 20 to a 50. I don't see where ANY risk would come from with base rock. It just needs to be well cleaned. Our's had been sitting in a rubbermaid dry for over a year. I just soaked and rinsed a few times.
 
Roka and HN1 hit the nail on the head. Very little rock will be added and be sure that you clean, rinse and rerinse your rock.linksyz are also correct as to the curing of uncured rock. The only way to be sure your rock is cured is to test for ammonia and nitrites. The only thing going against you is that you have a very small tank and any little change is a big change.
 
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