Quote:
Originally Posted by sphelps
skip the boiling process and place the rock directly into the pail with saltwater. This is sometimes referred to as cooking although you don't actually cook the rock, you just cure it in total darkness to prevent algae growth. More than likely nothing will have survived from being dry for months. It can take a couple months to fully re-cure but it depends on how often you change the water among other things. If you use your old tank water it could speed up the process. It's pretty much the same as cycling a tank.
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Agreed. If you want to speed the process you can raise the temperature of the "cooking" vat to about 90 degrees for the first month to help speed along the leeching process. You can do that just with freshwater to save yourself money. Weekly or twice weekly 100% water changes. Then you can use saltwater after that at a typical 76-80 degrees. Using old tank (saltwater) is a great idea to help seed the rock with nitrifying bacteria. Once the whole process is nearly over if you add a piece or two or three of very FRESH uncured live rock from the LFS you can introduce a bunch of great fauna too. After all this you will have some great rock!