Live Rock Cured .. Precured...Uncured

[JMB]

Can I get a basic lesson on live rock? What does cured mean exactly?

[snapcrackler]

Live rock by definition, is porous rock with live things growing on it and critters living inside it, to varying degrees. A nice piece of live rock might have crabs, shrimp, worms, sponges, coralline algae, tunicates, coral, etc living in and on it.

Most of the [acronym:94ea39ddc5="Live rock"]LR[/acronym:94ea39ddc5] you encounter today is aquacultured live rock which means that it was porous rock that was dry mined and then dumped into a leased plot of ocean for a year or a couple years (enough time for stuff to "seed" the rock and fro critters to move in). The company that does this then goes back and dives down to the rock to "harvest" the seeded rock, take it back to holding tanks, and then ship to you.

Cured means that the rock is to the point where there is no die-off, so as it comes out of the ocean it is fully "cured" because everything is healthy.

After the rock gets pulled out and shipped all over the place in some cases, die-off starts to occur because some of the critters cant survive the ride.

In that case you need to "cure" the rock by placing it in a large bucket of circulating [acronym:94ea39ddc5="Saltwater"]SW[/acronym:94ea39ddc5] and do water changes and even run a skimmer. Curing just means that you place the rock in that good [acronym:94ea39ddc5="Saltwater"]SW[/acronym:94ea39ddc5] to sustain the life of the living guys, and let the die-off stuff wash into the water so that the rock is no longer emitting yucky dead stuff that causes ammonia spikes etc.

if you get [acronym:94ea39ddc5="Live rock"]LR[/acronym:94ea39ddc5] from somewhere like liverocks.com then they take great care to keep everything alive so that by the time it gets to you there is extremely minimal die off. By this I mean if ou want to you can put it right in your tank and run a skimmer to handle the little tiny ammonia spike in most instances.

Hope this helps a little.

[JMB]

So if I get live rock from a shop where it has been in their tank for a while, it's OK to put it right into my tank?

Also, any advice on brand of protein skimmer? I have a 75 gallon. I see lots available on ebay.

[Biggen]

So if I get live rock from a shop where it has been in their tank for a while, it's OK to put it right into my tank?

If it is cured, than it should be fine. However, you still need to stock your tank slowly as your sand will not have any bacteria on it yet either.

Also, any advice on brand of protein skimmer? I have a 75 gallon.

I'll let someone else with more knowledge about skimmers comment on this. From what I have been reading, the AquaC Remoras are great skimmers.

[NaH2O]

Originally Posted by Biggen

I'll let someone else with more knowledge about skimmers comment on this. From what I have been reading, the AquaC Remoras are great skimmers.

Not to toss in another term, but there is also "semi-cured" live rock, which is rock that is in the process of being cured. Some claim that the smell won't be as bad as uncured while the process is taking place, and also a lot of bad hitchhikers may have "jumped ship" already. Personally, if you are going to cycle a tank with [acronym:f3e3fa4ca0="Live rock"]LR[/acronym:f3e3fa4ca0], I wouldn't bother paying the extra $$ for semi-cured...I'd go for uncured, just my opinion.

As far as skimmers go, Aqua C Remora or Remora Pro would be a great choice for your size tank. Here is a link to their home page: Aqua C
Here is a thread on Finding a Skimmer

Hope this helped!

[JMB]

Thanks for all yor help!