Curing Dry Rock
 

I'm thinking . . . I see no reason to cure dry rock in saltwater: at least for the first couple of weeks. There is no life to preserve. I simply want the phosphates to leech out.

I've got a new batch of Eco-Reefer rock. I haven't had an issue with this rock in the past. I have had severe "new tank" algae issues with dry rock that I picked up at Red Coral, however. I have no idea if the stuff I got from Red Coral is the same, or different, from the Eco-Reefer rock.

I'm planning 4-6 weeks in ro/di with a heater and powerhead, and then 4 (or so) weeks in saltwater with something to seed it. Any reason why this shouldn't work?

I think if you do a week or two in ro/di and do an extra 2-4 weeks in saltwater it would be better.
I had it in ro/di water for a week then in saltwater for 8 weeks worked fine no issues.

I could do that. It would give more time for bacteria to colonize.

How often did you change the SW water, Matt? And, what percentage of water change did you do?

A phosphate/silicate absorbing media wouldn't hurt.

I have a bag of Chemi Pure Elite. Should I just toss it in the rubbermade? Alternatively, I could hook up the canister filter to it and put the Chemi Pure Elite in that.

The last batch was just shy of about 150 pounds in a 100 gallon tub. I only did 5 gallon change every week, but the 5 gallons was from my main tank.
Bacteria still needs a food source to reproduce or spread.

You don't really have to do water changes all that much as you want bacteria to grow and there is no light for algae.

If after your first week in saltwater. If all your tests come out zero, then I wouldn't do a change for a few weeks. If your po4 is high then do a big water change as te rock is leeching.

When i cured my dry rock i just simply added it to my tank, i mean there is nothing to die off and no pests in the rock to cure it. Your simply just trying to seed it with your live rock and make it into live rock. In my 82 gallon build I basically took the shelf rocks i got from tony, drilled and made a structure that i liked and put it into my tank with my existing live rock (note to self throw away rock with aiptasia :lol:) and never had an algea bloom cause there was nothing to die of on the rocks.

Some of this stuff definitely needs cured/cooked out of the main display system! Dry rock can be like adding a phosphate bomb to your tank. I've used it three times without curing . . . never again. I've had huge GHA issues twice.

With eco rock it's tuff sometimes as you don't know how long it's been stored and how. Or for that matter how many times it's been store in places. Ie warehouse, back rooms, store fronts.
Dust or people touching always better to play it safe!

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=89284

Does not always work that way. I added mine as you mentioned.

The new dry rock has no bacterial way to fight off the invasive algae's, so they tend to get them more easily, just like in Doug's situation.

I boiled mine for a good 20 mins because I read that topic. Just added it to a salt water bin with biomax media I was storing in my SW canister filter. No idea what I'm doing but I hope that adds some good stuff to the dry rock and the boiling helped get rid of stuff I didn't want.

Wouldn't it be better to cure longer in sw then fresh so you get the sw bacteria you want?

Well.. I am going to ask an obvious question that it seems no one has thought of.. or maybe I am missing something.

Why buy dead rock manufactured rock and then seed it for the same cost as already live manufactured rock??

http://www.ecoliverock.org/

Not only is it cheap, but all profits go to reef conservation. It is Canadian and shipping is even free and included in the cost. Unless dead rock is waaay cheaper than $2.80/lbs with shipping, there doesn't seem to be a point in using it.

Pests. I don't want live rock. Ever. Not under any circumstance. I did start my first tank with live rock as I wasn't aware of any other options. I won't use it again: aqua-cultured or not.

I have introduced some pests through corals. That's just the way it is. Live rock can be a really significant source, however. It freaks me out putting a coral that is on a rock in my tank. I wish I could remove the coral first, but that isn't always possible.

I like the fact that with dry rock, I know what "critters" are in/on the rock. My dry rock was still cheaper.

What I like about live rock is that after 6 months, I'm still finding new critters. And reading this thread now, I'd never use dry rock. Sounds like a bit of a hassle. "IF" there was something in/on a rock that was going to eat my head, it sounds a lot easier to remove that rock than to go through all this "curing" for dry....no? And honestly, in all my years of live rock use, I had "pests" once that took 20 minutes to deal with, and was kinda fun doing it.

I guess I just don't get the dry rock crowd :razz:

Absolutely. I just figure that ro/di is easier. Just call me the "lazy reefer." ;) I use bacterial products, so I can get the bacteria into the rock and populating pretty easily and quickly. Sure, it costs more, but the end result is the same and it works well for me.

That's because you're clearly a "go with the flow" type of guy. I'm an uptight, anal-retentive, class-A personality type of gal.

My blood pressure is fine, thank you. :lol:

(that doesn't mean ALL folks who use DR are uptight, anal-retentive, class-a personalities)

interesting responses! I can understand not wanting pests, but not being able to play the "Live rock lottery" would be a real disappointment for me! I love the little critters I am finding. Several banded brittle stars, a serpent brittle star and what appears to be two orange co-co worms! (those could also be from my co-co worm). I guess I also have a different view on "pests".. I kind of look on having a pest as having a self renewing food supply for something cool that eats it!

I cured mine with normal tap water. It worked very well for me. Why would you use ro/di water? I don't see a benefit.

So that impurities from the tap water are not absorbed into the rock.

Sure there are nice critters in the rock, but you have just as good of a chance getting bad pests.... Or man eating pods by the thousands... Plus most of the time its not that hard to grab a pod or brittle star and toss it in with the curing rock later on.

I only use tap water for my tank, guess I cant say anything against that one. But isn't there a difference between the bacteria that helps filter in FW vs what helps iN SW? Wont the bacteria that colonizes in fresh die off when its tossed in salt?

You still wind up with a lot of stuff using the dry rock, as things come in from other places. I have a huge amphipods, a bunch of mini brittle stars, feather dusters everywhere, bristleworms, spaghetti worms . . . the list goes on and on.

The dry rock really just slows the speed at which the life appears, as it is introduced more slowly along with corals.

I've also brought in debersia, red turf algae, green bubble algae, bryopsis (perhaps two strains of the bryopsis). Aiptasia has hitched rides into my system on corals, as have colonial hydroids, and one majano. I've caught these things very quickly each time.

Shelley:
I see it this way if you take the Rock and run it in RO/DI water with the Salt, hook up a strong batch of GFO and runn it strong to suck out the PO4 from the rock, raising and lowering the temp with force the PO4 to leech faster. I read it some where on line.

its a pretty good thing to do, and with nothing in the tub /bin you are GTG


does that help you out any


Mike

lol well it seems like i was the lucky one as i did not have any problems with algae with dry rock, lets see if the nano will have an algae bloom lol once i can start it lol

I'm the same. I like finding inverts that hitched along. I'm still finding new critters years later. The latest is a bright yellow feather duster. As much as I don't like certain 'pests' (speared and removed a whole bunch of bristleworms and asterina during my move), to me they go a long way to keeping a better system balance. If your tank is too sterile it's apt to cause more damage when a problem arises.

Skimmer king.. oh god. I believe I have just met my nemesis! 1v1 at the sun and wet noodles at dawn!

So far I have gotten extremely contradicting information on RO/DI water. I ended up not using it and so far have had none of the problems I was told to expect on line. I was quite surprised when I went to the LFSs and found out they don't use it. But could that be because I let my water sit in a container for quite some time with a power head and a bubble pushing water through a multi filter pad before adding it into the system?

your multi pad does what actions?
running water creating bubbles all you are doing is allow air into the water keeping the PH up. you are not taking anything out. in order to get phosphates out of water you need a binding agent like rowphos, GFO. Now you state that you are getting info from LFS. However lots of LFs in the pass would give crappy info. There are top notch place out there like BWA, RCE, RCC, RConline, I know there are others out there and Sorry for not stating your store.

With RO/DI water in my terms and my language is pretty much naked water. other then CAL and ALK that you can't take out., Phosphates, sediment, all the other stuff is taken out. so using RO water and then going to RO/DI water its like Honda VS Caddy.

HTH

ahhh! I didn't notice that we live in different parts of the country. Well the stores involved are actually the ones that sponsor this site. Aquarium illusions looked at me like I was crazy and asked with the DI in RO/DI meant and Blue World pointed to the one on their wall and said rather unequivocally "waste of money".

The multi pad is mostly there to filter out any heavy metals that might have somehow leached in through the pipes. So it filters out copper, lead and other heavy metals but does have some carbon.

I have a feeling that the need for RO/DI is heavily dependent on your local water conditions. I have always wondered if our water quality in Edmonton is one of the explanations for the rather stunning number of speciality fish stores in the city. Maybe people are just more successful in the hobby here because of the water quality?

Well yes and no the membrane takes alot of the crap out and there are different filters that do different things like the
Carbon will take the chorline taste out
if you get what i mean. Some place in BC use straight tap water and have a PPM of 1-3 ,however in my region of CANADA. manitoba Brandon. I'm on the east side the older part of town. the PPM is 350 but by the time it gets to me its 8-900ppm and a membrane dont last long maybe 6 months if that. and DI dont last long either if your memebrane is shot. what I would do is may be look up and read about RO unit s and then read about DI. you will get some great reading . if you have other question just PM I have no probles helping ya out or start another thread .
We don't want to take over ENIGMA's thread here.
sorry Enigma for babbling on .

bingo....usually a lesson learned in time lol :P


i dont iunderstand why people wouldnt want the full diversity of a reef.


none of these things happen over night , if a pest turns into a problem in most cases its yourself to blame for either letting it get out of control or simply not wanting to deal with it when it wasnt a problem

ill never use dry rock , i know several sources now for liverock under $2/lb
i know far less people with "horrible pest problems" compared to those who are constantly battling things with dry rock.

I love the diversity. Really, if I had my preferences, I would be getting rock from as many different sources as I can to try and give a boost to that biodiversity. Micro fauna is a bit of an obsession of mine, so I want as much diversity as I can possibly get. I don't know if I would have more Algae with dead rock, but I do know that I have almost none with the set up I have now.

Where are you getting rock for under $2/lbs? Does that also include shipping? That sounds fantastic! I would love to hear more.

from local reefers , not many hobbyist charge over $5 for rock most sell for $3 and under.


i have liverock for $2/lb ...or i should say had :P

alot of stores buy their liverock off hobbyist as well and just mark it up with their other liverock.