Cycling a large tank?

[Beverly]

Originally Posted by MikeP

Does all LR need to be cured? I thought most of the stuff at the LFS was cured already. I could put it in a large rubbermaid, would it need to be heated? How long does it take to cure? I plan to use some base rock too, is there anything that needs to be done with it before it goes in the tank?

As Anthony states, most LR will not be cured. You will need to have great circulation and a heater when curing LR in a rubbermaid or other container. The LR will take up to six weeks to cure. When you have no detectible ammonia or nitrite, your rock will be cured.

Here's my page on curing small amounts of LR. For larger amounts of LR, use a larger powerhead than described in the article.

[Jaws]

I also read in an Aquarium Fish magazine that when you're adding new water to a tank for the first time, RO water may not be the best choice. They recommended tap water since some levels of phosphate, nitrate, and ammonia need to be present in order for the tank to cycle properly.

[Beverly]

You'll still get some nutrients added to new saltwater when the cured LR goes into the tank. I would only use RO water for any new tank. Also, new saltwater does not have to be "cycled" before the cured LR goes into it. The cured LR will cycle the tank pretty quickly.

One more thing, there is no need to fill the display tank with new saltwater until a day or two before putting in the cured LR. Cured LR can stay in the curing container for a week or two while you're filling your tank. There is no need to hurry along the process.

[kwirky]

I rushed my own setup, and wish I didn't. I used tapwater to start it, turned on my lights too early, had too much sand, didn't have rowaphos/phosban from the beginning. Stuff I won't do again.

I wish I never cured my LR in the display tank. it's real messy, with all the die-off on the tank's bottom. You can only siphon so much before you've removed too much water to siphon any more. And LFS liverock is not cured. Even moving it will cause some die-off of sponges due to the rock being exposed to the air.

If I were to do it all over again, I would have stilled my impatience, and done it like Beverly says, 1-3 buckets at a time. It's cleaner, less wasted water, and the slow introduction of the rock prevents an atom bomb of algae in the tank. Coraline doesn't grow well when the rock's covered in hair algae

You have an added cost though of a powerhead for each bucket, and a heater for each bucket.

If I was curing in buckets, I would put my nano's livestock in the big tank right away, if it would give better conditions. My whopping 4 frags went from barely adequate PC lighting to awesome T5 lighting, and they reacted positively almost immediately. And my single royal gramma perked up in the larger water volume right away.

Oh and if you have intense lights on while curing, you'll get inacurate readings of nitrates like I did. Algae will be eating up all the nitrates, so you'll think it's "cured" but it's actually just an algae bloom that's hiding the nutrient buildup.