Live Rock Detirus

[sroot17]

I am currently curing 60lbs of LR in my 50g (for the past 3 days) and am using it to help get the cycle going. I also placed a couple of shrimp in there yesterday to get my ammonia up.

I realized that I did not scrub my rock enough before putting it in the tank and now I have lots of detritus coming off the rock, especially when I scrub it with a toothbrush or move anything around. This has made my water look cloudy and I really want to remove as much of this stuff as I can before adding my substrate. I am stumped as the best way to proceed since I am mid-cycle.

I figure my options are to 1) scrub the rock in the tank and remove the detritus through siphoning and frequent water changes or 2) remove the rock piece by piece, scrub it in a bucket of sw and then place it back in the tank.

Can anyone tell me what impact either of these options will have on my cycle? It seems like performing water changes during a cycle is a controversial topic and I'd hate to slow things down anymore at this point.

Anyone other ideas are more than welcome!

Thanks

 

[Krypt]

I'd remove the rock and scrub it off piece by piece. It pays to be thorough and getting the gunk off in this early stage will save you alot of grief down the road. The reason doing water changes is a bad idea is that when you remove the water from the tank, your removing the ammonia and nitrite that the bacteria are utilizing to grow and it will slow down your cycle. Only time a water change is needed during cycling is if the ammonia levels are extremely high (off your test chart). Even bacteria that live to eat the stuff can still be killed by it if its extremely high. After your cycle is completed and amm/nitrite are 0, then do your water change to get ready for your live stock.

Hope this helps!