Cycle or Cure base rock

[HappyHooligan]

I ordered 15lbs of that Eco-Rock. Basically just dead, dried out LR.
I rinsed it and scrubbed thoroughly with tap water and placed it in a 10g container with DT water from a PWC, a PH, and heater.
Now,
Do I treat this like curing and do PWCs or let the nitro. cycle do it's thing uninterrupted?
I plan on periodically removing the rock and scrubbing it so I guess my main question is whether to PWC or not.

Amm. is 4.0
Nitrite appears to be over 5.0

 

[austinsdad]

With ammonia like that, you can cycle a small tank with it. Are you adding it to an established tank? How big and to how much existing rock?

You'll do OK to cure it by letting the cycle "ride" I believe. Folks often cure rock outside of the main tank.

 

[HappyHooligan]

Are you adding it to an established tank?

Yeah, it's going into an established DT tank once it's...well, either cycled or cured.

 

[austinsdad]

You're curing it.

 

[HappyHooligan]

K, so I should do water changes then?
I understand the point of water changes in curing LR is to avoid killing off established bacteria from high Amm. levels.

This rock started off completely void of anything alive so...
is there still a risk from the high Amm. on the developing bacteria or is there no real risk at this point and doing water changes will simply slow the process.

 

[mrg02d]

K, so I should do water changes then?
I understand the point of water changes in curing LR is to avoid killing off established bacteria from high Amm. levels.

This rock started off completely void of anything alive so...
is there still a risk from the high Amm. on the developing bacteria or is there no real risk at this point and doing water changes will simply slow the process.

Something must have been alive to have such high ammonia released. When I cycled my tank, I had high levels of ammonia and no harm to the bacteria resulted. They like it!

This concerns me as I also bought some dry live rock from LFS to add to my 10month old tank. I just plopped it in after a good scrubbing and boiling. Its been over a week now and no ill effects so I guess its okay?

One rock, that didnt go in, smelled bad even after all the boiling and scrubbing. Any idea why? Im guessing this rock, which I still want to add, will need to cycle in a tub?

Matt

 

[HappyHooligan]

Something must have been alive to have such high ammonia released.

I assume/ attribute the ammonia spike to dead matter left on the rock (even after srubbing) decaying.

will need to cycle in a tub?

Probably not a bad idea, just see if something happens.

 

[austinsdad]

Already dead stuff decaying is what likely caused the ammonia, not new dying stuff. If you're sure there was nothing living on it, I'd let the cycle ride and not prolong it if it were me. When you add it to the main, it'll get seeded with plenty more live stuff.

 

[HappyHooligan]

I'm just gonna let the cycle go.
It will be placed in the DT to build up the existing LR so I'm not too concerned if there is anything alive on it right away.
I'm more concerned with not causing a spike in the DT.