Dill tank

[Beverly]

Ted,

I always cure rock in a smaller, separate tank/container than the display tank. I use less water that way, and once the rock is cured, it goes into clean NSW that has no nitrate or phosphate from the curing process. This avoids nuisance algae over the short and long term.

When I bring the rock home, it is cleaned of any obvious dead material. If it has been in the lfs for awhile, it might have algae growth on it, which I scrub off. Each rock then gets a thorough swishing in a pail of lower salinity water or changewater from one of my other tanks. It's amazing the amount of crud that comes out of new rock and the water gets dirty very quickly. Once dirty, I dump it and get more clean water then swish more rock.

During the curing process, I make sure there is sufficient aeration and heat to simulate conditions in the tank it is destined for. I also take each rock and do more swishing every week or so. Again, it's amazing how crud comes of the rock during curing, and I dump dirty water and begin again with new water.

By the time the rock has cured, tons of dead stuff has been swished off the rock - stuff that does not go into the display tank to cause algae problems. One final swish, then the rock goes into the display tank