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AdamHorton

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Aug 12, 2009
Messages
581
Location
Cincinnati, OH
Next thing I want to do to my tank is add about 50 lbs or so of live rock. I live in Chillicothe, OH, and I work in Cincinnati, OH, but my LFS is near Columbus, OH. I'm still uncertain if I want to just buy cured LR at $6.50/lb, try to buy uncured LR, or try to make my own out of Argocrete or something. I only have experience buying 50 lbs of cured LR to cycle my tank with.

If I buy uncured LR, I'm thinking about trying to cure it in my garage. I measured the temperature in my garage and it was 80 this morning (outside temp was in the 60s), I don't see it getting any hotter than 85 in there in mid-day, and over the next couple of months the outside temp will drop maybe a max of 15 degrees average. I guess my garage is pretty well insulated. Do you think that with a heater, I could keep the temperature stable enough to cure LR?

Has anybody had good experiences/good prices ordering uncured LR online? What about making it out of concrete? I've read the articles about it but I'm having trouble getting a good idea of what everything costs...
 
Marcorocks.com

Cure it in the tub in your garage with a heater and powerhead. Marc estimates that his new 'pre cycled' base rocks takes about a week to burn off what remaining organics are on it. If you have any questions, give him a call or email. Great guy and company to deal with.

I noticed your 'my tanks' says you have 30lbs of sand in that 150... That can't be much of a layer.. Your goby may appreciate some more if you get a chance
 
Ahh, 30 lbs of it is live, there is more sand, but it wasn't live when I started the tank. I'll clarify that.

I'll take a look at the link. Thanks for the advice!
 
Not quite sure where that factoid came from but you are aware that there are many in the hobby that run bare bottom tanks right? As long as there is sufficient area for bacteria to colonize (LR, decorations, sump, HOB, canister filters etc) sand is totally optional unless you have livestock that prefer/require it.

IMO

even 100lbs of live sand isnt enough for a 150... 1 lb per gallon minimum...
 
100 lbs isn't all I plan to keep in that tank... I just don't want to add a whole bunch of LR at once. When everything is done I think I want to end up with 200-250 lbs in the 150G tank. I have a wet-dry filter right now but if all goes well, someday in the (probably distant) future I might take it away and just let the LR act as a biological filter.
 
+1 on the Marcorocks recommendation.

I added 50lbs of his BaseRock to my 50lbs of LR. After a month in my tank, the Base is already looking like my LR. I imagine in another month or so, I wont be able to tell the difference at all.
 
I ordered 50 lbs of live rock last night from macrorocks. The price seemed pretty good, so we'll see how the rock ends up. It's supposed to be here later this week.

I set a black trash can in my garage with about 15 gallons of water in it. A submersible heater and powerhead are in there right now mixing it. I'll keep this thread updated with how it goes. Thanks for the advice.
 
I ordered from Marcorocks and they got here on Thursday. I started curing them in the garage. Here are some pictures:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/lrsetup1.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/lrsetup2.jpg

Not much to look at, there's about 15 gallons of water in there, a 20G heater and a 20G powerhead. I took some measurements on Friday and the ammonia is already up to 0.5 ppm. I'll be doing 5G water changes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays until this rock is cycled.

For those of you who have used Marcorocks, about how long did it take for your LR to cure?
 
The new 'pre cycled' stuff takes about a week, the other was 3-4 weeks for me (as I remember).

You can always call/email Marc as well
 
I added the LR last Thursday, and today it's been a week. Here are all the measurements I've taken: 15 lbs of LR curing in 15 gallons of water, along with a 20G heater, 20G powerhead, and about 7-8 lbs of rock from my tank.

Friday (1 day):
Specific Gravity: 1.022 (added a little salt, not much though)
Ammonia: 0.5 ppm
pH: 8.0

Monday (4 days):
Specific Gravity: 1.023
Ammonia: 0.25 ppm
Nitrite: 0.1 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm
pH: 8.0
--immediately after this measurement I did a 33% water change

Tuesday (5 days):
Specific Gravity: 1.023
Nitrite: 0.1 ppm
Nitrate 5 ppm

Wednesday (6 days):
Specific Gravity: 1.023
Ammonia: 0.25 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 5 ppm
pH: around 8.1
--immediately after this measurement I did a 33% water change

Thursday (7 days):
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 5 ppm

This was "pre-cycled" rock so that explains why it cycles so quickly, though I don't understand exactly how that is possible since it arrived completely dry.

If things continue like this it looks like I'll be able to add the rock to the DT this weekend. I guess I'm looking for zero Ammonia and Nitrite readings?
 
Friday's measurements:
Specific Gravity: 1.024
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0.05 ppm (in between that and 0, it's tough to tell)
Nitrate: 5 ppm
pH: 8.1

I went ahead and put in the new rock this morning. Here are some pictures:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/newrocks01.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/newrocks02.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/newrocks03.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/newrocks04.jpg

Something is growing on one of the rocks I used to seed this new rock and I don't know what it is. I took some pictures and I'm going to start a new thread in the ID forum to try and find out what it is:

http://www.adamhorton.com/files/growth1.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/growth2.jpg
http://www.adamhorton.com/files/growth3.jpg
 
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