Help! Is there anyway to tell if Live Rock has been cured?

[pittchic]

My husband just brough a bunch of live rock home from the LFS. He was told it was cured so he dumped it into the tank but then noticed that it has A LOT of junk still on it. He took it out of the water and ran a soft bristled toothbrush over it and A LOT of junk is coming off of it. Do you think it's cured? Is there anyway to tell? What will this do to our tank if it's not cured? We have 5 damsels in there right now that have been cycling our tank for the last month.

 

[lando]

first off, welcome to AquariumAdvice.com!!!
Since your tank is new I would not worry too much about it. If it came from a tank at the LFS I would think you would be okay. The best way to tell is to smell the rock. If it smells like ammonia or dead stuff it will need to be recured. Was it in a tank with fihs at the LFS?

 

[pittchic]

Thanks Lando! Well, our LFS had several bins of LR, none had fish in it. Some cured, some uncured. There was one tank that the guy wasn't sure of so he asked the front..they said it was cured. This tank had the smaller rocks which my husband wanted so the guy took our rock out of there. The rock that we have in the tank now has A LOT of dirt and junk on it. The rock doesn't smell too bad. Is there anyway to tell if it's cured?

 

[Thumper]

If it's uncured with a lot of die off it will smell BAD. You will know pretty quick if this is the case just by the smell.

 

[dralarms]

At this point it's better to put the rock back in the tank, if he got it from the lfs chances are it was cured. Smel the rock, does it smell like ocean or like death. If it smells nasty then it probally is not cured, and you want to get the fish out of the tank.

Oh and Welcome to AA.

 

[pittchic]

Will it smell in water, out of water or both? This doesn't smell that bad. Does cured rock have a lot of "dirt" falling off of it? BTW - Thanks for your help with this!!!

 

[quarryshark]

Could just be sediment, can you place it in a separate container for a few days with a PH and a heater? If there is no sign of ammonia within a day or 2, then you know it is cured.

 

[fishfreek]

Merged duplicate posts.