should I buy cured or raw?
I buy all of my rock uncured. When buying cured rock from an LFS you are getting picked over rock. They LFS goes in and sorts all shipped rock by sizes, algae coverages, etc. and you get better rock by paying more.
If you buy from an online source/boxed uncured rock you get a variety of rock. I have puchased several hundreds of pounds of uncured rock and have never had a problem.
Based on the amount you need, you could cure in your garage or basement. All you need is a rubbermaid tub which costs about 20.00 a high flow water pump and a skimmer. The more water flow and skimming you do the quicker the rock will cure. Most of mine completes in under two weeks. If you can get some water from a cycled tank, it cures faster.
Remember, the LFS are going to tell you want they want to because they need to move merchandise. There is nothing wrong with buying from them if you do not have the ways of performing the function yourself.
duss.
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