Going Live Rock Crazy

[Charlie]

In my 46gal FOWLR I have about 70lbs of lr. Mostly in the tank but some in the wet/dry. All of my lr was either pre-cured and shipped overnight or bought fully cured from the lfs.

I just received 30lbs of Select Lalo lr from liveaquarium.com. This lr is uncured. I placed it in a separate 10gal tank (barely fit) and hung on a small HOB with a sponge filter that came out of my display tank. I'll add some aeration tomorrow.

During the 2-3 week curing process how should I be removing any unwanted hitchhikers? Will Mantis Shrimp be obvious if they are present?

[dskidmore]

There are alot of suggested methods for doing this. The most common involves a freshwater or brine dip. Critters in the rock will get uncomfortable and come out, for you to sort for yourself. No method is 100% however, so keep your eyes open for activity in/on the rock.

Keep in mind that most methods of exposing hitchhikers are capable of doing minor damage to corals, and major damage to sponges. If you want to baby the good stuff on the rock, you have to stick with traps, etc to get off the hitchhikers.

[mdjxt39]

I ordered the same lalo live rock from liveaquaria.com too, and in the box after curing they suggested that for getting the hitchhikers off you dip the rocks in fresh saltwater that was mixed to a specific gravity of 1.035 to 1.040 for one minute.

They said this will cause a lot of the hitchhikers to jump out of the rock and then you can pull the rock out without them.

I was thinking I would do this in two weeks or so but my question is should I make a fresh bucket of water for every rock I need to dip in for a minute so they don't rehitchhike back on or will they just stay in the bucket?

[Charlie]

mdjx39,

Was your lalo rock a couple of huge pieces that were smashed into smaller pieces of about 5-8lbs? Much of my lalo doesn't look very good due to the prominent break lines on some of the rock. Large pieces could actually be fit back together into a boulder. Most of it was disappointing in structure.
However, it does have a lot of color and should prove to be very interesting when matured. I've got it barely fitting into a 10gal tank. Using a HOB and a flat air stone.

[mdjxt39]

Can't say the same for mine, I got some really amazing pieces of lalo live rock also got a 22 lb. box of their fiji premium which was also really really nice.

[dskidmore]

Might have a second bucket handy with normal salinity in it. Move the hitchikers over there between rocks, so you can sort them out.

[nycpassat]

That's a lot of live rock you ahve there.

[dskidmore]

Depends on the density of the rock. It's usually sold by the pound, but the volume is what we're aiming for.

[Charlie]

Stopped by the lfs to shoot the breeze with the guys. I noticed that one of the huge reef tanks was all cloudy and had about 75% "white" lr instead of the heavily encrusted stuff that's always there. Sales guy tells me that they just took most of the matured lr out and replaced it with cured (but clean) rock which will be fully encrusted in another 6-12 months.

I had to ask - where's all that rock now? "I put it in the curing tank where it will all be sold within 2 days", he said. "Ten bucks a pound and I could easily get $15 for rock like that". I look into the curing tanks and sure enough there is hundreds of pounds of deep purple covered lr. There are tiny corals on most pieces. Lots of red, pink and purple coverage.

I couldn't fit another rock in my tank but couldn't resist either. I picked out a few small pieces that had unbelievable coverage and growth to use as accents (and seed) in my display tank. I think I'm addicted. :>)

One of the pieces has some bright yellow matter on it in a few places. Any guesses as to what it might be?

[ntswift]

Wow $10 per lb?! That is really expensive! As for the yellow matter on the rocks, its probably a sponge or some sort. Post a pic in the ID forum and I'm sure someone can I.D. it.