Live rock question.

[travis1209]

I bought 50 pounds of live rock about 20 days ago and my tank wasn't ready yet so I put it in a brute garbage bin with a heater and a couple power heads I'm just wondering when I go to set my tank up should I use the water the rocks have been in or no? They are in about 35 gallons of water.

 

[rushopkins]

Is the rock cured yet? If not, then do small water changes once a week as the ammonia will spike due to the rock curing. If it is already cured then just check the water to make sure nothing goes wrong. It will take a couple of months for the rock to cure before placing in your tank. Either way I wouldn't use the water the rock is sitting in now in your DT.

 

[Big Tex]

Is the rock cured yet? If not, then do small water changes once a week as the ammonia will spike due to the rock curing. If it is already cured then just check the water to make sure nothing goes wrong. It will take a couple of months for the rock to cure before placing in your tank. Either way I wouldn't use the water the rock is sitting in now in your DT.

^^x2 on this

also your going to have a small cycle in your tank once you add the live sand, its going to happen. i would not use any water from the storage bin, if the rock was live when you bought it, it should stil be live and you can just transfer it over to your DT but if it was dry or partially dead when you bought it and someone called it live rock then no its not cycled yet in the bin. once you add it to your DT with the live sand your still going to have a small cycle, maybe 2-3 weeks at the most since its been partially cycled for 3 weeks now in the bin.

 

[jeffaquarius]

Regardless wither the LR is already cured or not you can not use the water from the bin if the nitrate level is high. Since you will have a new substrate and probably add more dry rocks you still need to cycle the whole tank anyway.