How and Why should I cure LR

[simian]

How and Why should I cure LR. How do I know if the fish shop has done it for me?

 

[andersen]

You may click below article, it might be help you...

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/showquestion.php?faq=2&fldAuto=6

 

[fishfreek]

Always QT your rock from an untrusted source. If the rock tests + for ammonia and/or nitrite after 24 hours then its uncured. If you get no detectiable ammonia and nitrite then your rock is cured and safe to add to an existing tank.

You should cure rock as uncured rock can produce vast amounts of ammonia and nitrite causing even an established tank to crash if enough uncured rock is added.

 

[THeCheat]

If you are adding the LR to a brand new tank, do you not bother with the cure, since the ammonia will only help start the cycling process? Or is the first cycling, basically the curing process? Sorry if these questions are dumb. I'm a newb.

 

[Dvoros]

The Cheat, if there are no fish in the aquarium then you dont need to cure the LR separately, it will just ride along with the tank as it cycles.

As with me i have fish already in my tank and I am currently "curing" the LR before i add it to my tank. This is the procedure I used and am using.

1) went and bought a 16 gallon rubbermaid tub.
2) Put tub in my middle bathroom (it was out of the way and easy to empty water out when needed.
3) Got about 20 lbs live rock from my LFS
4) put rocks in tub and added half fresh mixed saltwater and half salt water form my tank that it is going into.
5) 24 hours later check for ammonia and nitrites, if 0 then you should be ok to add to tank.
6) My ammonia and nitrites in the tub spiked off the scale soo, every other day now i take out half the water in the tub and replace with an equal amount of water from my aquarium.
7) on the days i dont do water change then i test for ammonia and nitrite. They are slowly going down (it has been a week).
8) once the ammonia and nitrites have dropped to 0 then i stop water changes and continue to test every other day, once a week has past and still no ammonia and nitrites then they will be added to my tank with some base rock.

wew alot of typing, hope that helps.

Dave

 

[quarryshark]

If you are adding the LR to a brand new tank, do you not bother with the cure, since the ammonia will only help start the cycling process? Or is the first cycling, basically the curing process? Sorry if these questions are dumb. I'm a newb.

Not a dumb question at all.
Its a great way to cycle a new tank, in fact its the best way IMO. If the tank is new, just clean off the obvious dead stuff and add it.

 

[THeCheat]

Thanks for the help guys. Every piece of information I can get is priceless at this point. So I will just put my new LR right in the tank and do it like that. Do I still replace half the water every day until ammonium and nitrate levels are proper?

Also, how do you recommend I mix 40 gallons of salt water? In a huge garbage can? And since it's gonna be heavy as hell, should I get a pump to pump it back up into my tank? I think I might still have one from my hydro days... would you recommend a different pump for this operation? Not sure if the pump I was using for that is suitable for salt water. ???

Thanks again for all your help, guys. This is a HUGE help!!

 

[seafan]

Ammonia(NH3), Ammonium(NH4+) is alot less noxious and is more present at lower ph.