MAKING DRY ROCK LIVE

[Abe]

I am in the planning stages of setting up my 230G salt water tank. It is going to be a slow progress because I want to make sure I cover all bases. During the wait, I thought I should get some dry rocks and make them live until I have the tank ready. I am going to put them in a rubbermaid bin under a 250w MH, power head and a heater, is there anything else needed to make my dry rock become live. Any input will be much appreciated.

[Starry]

Live rock to seed and alot less light.

[Corbin]

no light what so ever, keep the algae away till its in your tank. live rock too seed bacteria.

[syncro]

You can also seed with a bacterial additive like MicroBacter7 or Prodibio.

[Abe]

yea I would go with the additive, I dont want to use any live rock in my new tank just worried of aptisia lol. how low of light do I need, I thought if you go with no light I will be cooking the rock.

[Corbin]

well you cant really cook dry rock, if your meaning, dry rock as, it was never live rock from a reef but man made instead.

"But before I do I just want to say that Bomber instructed me how to do it several months ago and it works great. So it is his process that I am trying to make popular and cause fellow hobbyists a lot less heartache in the long term.
The purpose of "cooking" your rocks is to have tha bacteria consume all (or as much) organic material and PO4 stored on, and in, the rock as possible.

The first step to this is commitment.
You have to be willing to remove your rock from the tank.
It doesn't have to be all at once, but I feel if you are going to do this do it all. In stages if that is easier but make sure that all of it gets done.

The new environment you are creating for your rock is to take it from an algal driven to a bacterial driven system.
In order to this, the rock needs to be in total darkness to retard and eventually kill the algae's on the rock and to give the bacteria time to do the job."

- http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...hreadid=437342

If you just want to seed the rock, you dont really need the rock since the bacteria doesnt really need it. but to get coraline etc growing then yeah.

[Abe]

I miss typed earlier of what I am looking for. I have dry rock that I bought couple of days ago and want to make them live with caroline algae so they are ready for the tank when it is set up, and to use them to seed the new dry rock during the cycle. I don't want to seed it with already live rock because I am worried I might get aptasia or unwanted criters in it. so my question is, if I put them in a bucket with a heater and a powerhead and added some aditive will that make them live and have coraline algae or I need some light on top to start the process. Thanks in advance.

[Money pit]

If you want coralline, you will need light and something to seed it. If it was me, I would wait for this step until after its in your tank. To seed the rock with bacteria, you can always just toss in a cocktail shrimp. This will start the cycle, but you may want to monitor the progress, depending how long it will be before you need the rock, you may need to add a shrimp periodically. Once the shrimp is gone the bacteria will begin to starve. This can all be done in the dark. Doesn't have to be shrimp, you can use fish food, plankton whatever. To get pods, you will need a piece of live rock, even a small piece that you can check closely for aiptasia will work as long as it has pods in it.
These guys will starve too if you don't feed the rock. If you're really worried you can always put the live rock in a small container under a light for a week or 2. If there is aiptasia, this should give it time to come out where you can see it.

[chewie]

As far as I know you will need some live rock with coraline algae already on it for more to grow. You cant just put dirt in a pot and expect tomatoes to grow without adding seeds...It does grow best under low light, even none.