adam_keene
Aquarium Advice Regular
I bought liverock that came in with a shipment of fish at petco that was in a shopping cart waiting to be put in a tank. Does this mean it is curred or what? Should I have bought it from the water?
Live Rock question
- Thread starter adam_keene
- Start date
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Fluff
Aquarium Advice Addict
I would cure it just to be safe. Since it is fresh from shipping, it will likely have some die off. And you don't know how long it has been out of the water.
copi
Aquarium Advice Freak
If petco hadn't even put it in a tank yet, it's uncured. There will have been die-off during shipping.
adam_keene
Aquarium Advice Regular
omg! WHat do i do!??!? how do i cure it??? i already have it in my tank!!! is this a problem?
Fluff
Aquarium Advice Addict
Do you have fish in y our tank? If so, just keep an eye on your water parameters and have water premixed incase you need to do a water change. With uncured rock, you will no doubt have an ammonia spike. If you have no fish in the tank, I wouldn't worry. Alot of people use liverock to cycle thier tank. This would work with uncured rock also.
copi
Aquarium Advice Freak
adam_keene said:
"Curing" is basically the process of allowing the system to cycle -- the dieoff from the time the rock was out of water supplies ammonia, and the survivng bacteria use this as food to grow and multiply. This is perfect in an otherwise empty tank -- once this cycle is complete, you've got a good healthy system ready to handle the (slow) addition of livestock.
If you've added uncured LR to a system with fish, you'll have to monitor closely and be prepared to do frequent water changes in order to prevent the ammonia from rising to toxic levels.
adam_keene
Aquarium Advice Regular
wow thanks! I have a water test kit, i just need to find out how to use it... ill watch for an ammonia spike... what is a normal ammonia level at? what would a spike be at?
mjvincent
Aquarium Advice Freak
Ammonia should be at 0. Spiking is anything above 0 after your cycle.
copi
Aquarium Advice Freak
adam_keene said:
After adding the uncured LR, you'll first observe ammonia rise, then begin to fall as nitrites rise. Nitrites fall as nitrates rise, and finally everything should settle back down near zero.
You'll then have an established bacterial colony capable of handling a certain bioload. Not to get too far ahead of things, but add livestock slowly after this initial cycle. If you put in too much too fast, you'll surpass the amount of waste that your bacteria can process and your tank will cycle again -- create too large of a subsequent cycle and the livestock won't survive.
Your kit should, at minimum, test for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, and pH.
