Fishman007
Aquarium Advice Addict
How should i prepare it before putting it in the tank? Btw its gonna be 60lbs.
put it in a bucket of RODI and scrub it with a tooth brush
If it's new dry rock (ie, from BRS), you need to cure it. Do this by putting the rock in a container of salt water w/ a heater and pump, and let it sit for a few weeks.
I did a combined cure and cycle on my rock and tank by adding a cocktail shrimp to the water as well to feed the BB colonies.
BRS has a video on their YouTube channel (BRSTv) on how to prep dry rock for a tank. Follow their instructions and the how-to guide on this site and you'll be good to go.
Just don't rush the process or stop things before they're ready, otherwise you will just cause big problems down the road.
Just wondering but why the need to cure base rock, there is no life on it. You would really only need to let it sit to leach out any phosphates still trapped in the rock, as there will be no die off.
I bought a load of base rock once and added it into a 40g tank where I was going to do a hyposalinity treatment for my fish when they had ich. I added a sponge filter that I had sitting in my reef tank to it to help with ammonia. Even after thoroughly cleaning the rock off there was a HUGE spike in ammonia, waaaay more than 2 clowns and a firefish could even begin to produce. it may be dry rock but that doesn't mean it won't still produce ammonia.
I bought a load of base rock once and added it into a 40g tank where I was going to do a hyposalinity treatment for my fish when they had ich. I added a sponge filter that I had sitting in my reef tank to it to help with ammonia. Even after thoroughly cleaning the rock off there was a HUGE spike in ammonia, waaaay more than 2 clowns and a firefish could even begin to produce. it may be dry rock but that doesn't mean it won't still produce ammonia.
Yes you can that's what curing live rock is it uses the die off to start the cycle if there's any dead stuff in your base rock it too will start a cycle.
Watch the BRS video on curing the rock. I followed their procedure and was completely successful.
Also how do you cure live rock with corals? I got a 7lb piece an hour ago, its in the tank already but just wanted to know if its possible