Curing Live Rock

Okay, so I understand now that the curing process is necessary to allow
the dead stuff on the rock to cycle away all the nasty things that
happen when it dies.

If I buy live rock from a reputable store, that has been properly cured
since shipping (ie it would be fine to put in his display tanks), what
happens when I take it home?

Can I just put it into my main tank or does it need to be cured again?
And if so, what would the circumstances be? Like if I was to get it from
his tank to mine in 30 minutes, would this be okay? How should it be
packaged for the trip? Totally submerged or what?

Thanks

For a quick trip home, it needs to be wrapped in newspaper, inserted into a
large bag, and then the LFS employee/owner should pour enough tank water all
over the paper to soak it.

As soon as you get home, unwrap it and put it in your tank.

Marc


Tom Burns wrote:

Okay, so I understand now that the curing process is necessary to allow
the dead stuff on the rock to cycle away all the nasty things that
happen when it dies.

If I buy live rock from a reputable store, that has been properly cured
since shipping (ie it would be fine to put in his display tanks), what
happens when I take it home?

Can I just put it into my main tank or does it need to be cured again?
And if so, what would the circumstances be? Like if I was to get it from
his tank to mine in 30 minutes, would this be okay? How should it be
packaged for the trip? Totally submerged or what?

Thanks

--
Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com

For a quick trip home, it needs to be wrapped in newspaper, inserted into a
large bag, and then the LFS employee/owner should pour enough tank water all
over the paper to soak it.

As soon as you get home, unwrap it and put it in your tank.

Marc

aditionally to what marc said, IF its not a quick trip bring an empty salt bucket or
pickle barrel with a good lid, and they can put it into the bucket full of the tank water
where the LR was kept.

with enough water and the right temp, it can go a while like this with no noteable dieoff.

do make sure once you get home that it goes into a tank or more controled area.
--
Richard Reynolds

Correct me if I'm wrong guys but another thing to do is smell it. I
should smell like an aquarium, not dead fish. If it smells dead it's
not cured yet.

Ct Midnite

On Sat, 13 Dec 2003 19:40:53 -0800, "Richard Reynolds"
wrote:

For a quick trip home, it needs to be wrapped in newspaper, inserted into a
large bag, and then the LFS employee/owner should pour enough tank water all
over the paper to soak it.

As soon as you get home, unwrap it and put it in your tank.

Marc

aditionally to what marc said, IF its not a quick trip bring an empty salt bucket or
pickle barrel with a good lid, and they can put it into the bucket full of the tank water
where the LR was kept.

with enough water and the right temp, it can go a while like this with no noteable dieoff.

do make sure once you get home that it goes into a tank or more controled area.

Ct Midnite

http://www.geocities.com/ctmidnite53/Fish.html

Marc Levenson wrote in message ...
For a quick trip home, it needs to be wrapped in newspaper, inserted into a
large bag, and then the LFS employee/owner should pour enough tank water all
over the paper to soak it.

As soon as you get home, unwrap it and put it in your tank.

Marc

I agree with Marc (and he's got a lot more experience than I) - with
only one exception, and this is ONLY applicable to sponges - they
don't like air one little bit it seems...

I've had mixed results with the soaked newspaper method - particularly
for sponge encrusted live rock - the sponges only seem to make it 50%
of the time, and I only live 5 minutes from my LFS... to combat the
sponge die off, I requested water immersion in bags for the last small
batch of live rock (5 pieces, 3 pounds in total weight) - I purchased
these small pieces of liverock for the sponge life on it and the brain
coral alone - I'm decorating now, not building structure! Touch
wood... that did the trick! I now have several new bright orange
sponges, a small brain coral that made it with almost zero damage, a
small bright red clam and two bright yellow spherical sponges - all
appear to have made it intact.

Doing a little research, it appears that a sponge can be irreparably
damaged if exposed to air - they seem unable to expel the air and
continue to filter water in at least some instances - I've now decided
that ALL sponge bearing liverock will be purchased submerged and
transported without newspaper or air exposure (as much as possible).

General live rock I'm not so fussy about, but those sponges... tricky
little fellows!

hth

Greg Hewitt-Long


Tom Burns wrote:

Okay, so I understand now that the curing process is necessary to allow
the dead stuff on the rock to cycle away all the nasty things that
happen when it dies.

If I buy live rock from a reputable store, that has been properly cured
since shipping (ie it would be fine to put in his display tanks), what
happens when I take it home?

Can I just put it into my main tank or does it need to be cured again?
And if so, what would the circumstances be? Like if I was to get it from
his tank to mine in 30 minutes, would this be okay? How should it be
packaged for the trip? Totally submerged or what?

Thanks

I always take a 5-gallon bucket with 2 gallons of my mix in it to the LFS,
put the rock in it and fill to cover the rock with the lfs's water. Seems
to work okay.
Dan the beginner.


"Marc Levenson" wrote in message
...
For a quick trip home, it needs to be wrapped in newspaper, inserted into a
large bag, and then the LFS employee/owner should pour enough tank water all
over the paper to soak it.

As soon as you get home, unwrap it and put it in your tank.

Marc


Tom Burns wrote:

Okay, so I understand now that the curing process is necessary to allow
the dead stuff on the rock to cycle away all the nasty things that
happen when it dies.

If I buy live rock from a reputable store, that has been properly cured
since shipping (ie it would be fine to put in his display tanks), what
happens when I take it home?

Can I just put it into my main tank or does it need to be cured again?
And if so, what would the circumstances be? Like if I was to get it from
his tank to mine in 30 minutes, would this be okay? How should it be
packaged for the trip? Totally submerged or what?

Thanks

--
Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com

"Marc Levenson" wrote in message
...
For a quick trip home, it needs to be wrapped in newspaper, inserted into
a
large bag, and then the LFS employee/owner should pour enough tank water
all
over the paper to soak it.

As soon as you get home, unwrap it and put it in your tank.

Marc


If it just a small piece of rock and nothing else you really care for or
concern with, then simply put it in. Your main tank should be able to handle
a small imbalance.

Other then Marc method...

Alternative... [caution method]

I would bring a bucket to your LFS and use their water to hold your rock.
Bring back home and check the parameter of the water and see if ok. Your
reading should be within the same range of your tank water.

Anything that you going to put into your tank should be inspect it carefully
before adding. Better safe then sorry later.

CapFusion,...