Can I add dry base rock without curing

[Racing1]

Just as the title say's,

Can I add dry baserock to the main display wothout curing it first? I ordered 50 lbs of marcorock's Fiji rock and it comes dry....

Thanks

[bj32482]

cure it!!!
actually mix it in 1 part water and 1 part vinegar for about a day then rinse really well...

[Racing1]

After I do that can I add it right to the tank?

[demonsp]

Give it a good rinse and find a new home for it.It will go live and the better the water quality the faster it will.

[dascharisma]

After a very good rinsing you should be fine adding it to the tank (I have done so myself more than once). However, I would only add a piece every few days. I wouldn't add it all at once because you don't want to shock your system in any way.


Brad

[ACBlinky]

Be careful. There was a thread recently about someone who wiped out their entire tank by adding a bunch of dry rock that had been cleaned very well and stored dry in a bucket for years. He assumed it would be fine, but lost all his fish - I was heartbroken reading the thread. Whether it was oxygen depletion or an ammonia spike that killed the fish, the general consensus was that leftover organics in the dry rock had poisoned the tank.

I'd put your base rock into a bin with SW, test for ammonia, and if you don't see any within a couple days add it to the tank - better safe than sorry.

[Racing1]

Thanks for the replies... I will put it in a tote for a few days once it arrives and check for ammonia....

[Zedar]

Take ACBlinky's advice.

But also add 2 tablespoons of sugar/ vingar or vodka to the water. If there is any nutrients left in the rock you'll get a bacterial bloom in a few days.
It will look like a clear stringy slime coming off the rocks..

If you get a bloom add a protein skimmer to the container and continue curing the rock till your not producing any more blooms and the skimmer isnt producing any skimate.


hold off putting it in the tank till its fully cured. A bit of preventative medicine at the start will prevent a lot of grief later.

Also don't put any light in the container. It will promote algae growth. We want to use bacteria to cleanse the rock.

Hopefully the rock is clean and you can ignore everything ive said

[NewBostonConst]

Place it in a bucket in old water from a water change, and check for ammonia as the others have said. I lost my 120 gallon system by just adding 75 lbs of uncured rock to it. The tank was 4 months old and I was out of town when my wife said the fish seemed funny. Lost everything in one day.

You think you are doing the right thing by adding more rock and you end up killing eveything.

[lancer99]

I am treating my Marco rocks just like I would any other uncured rock.

Cycling 50 lbs with a few pieces of LR to seed it. Lots of flow, siphoning off the detritus, and doing a ~50% water change every few days.

After the first day, my skimmer went crazy, and 11 days later, I'm still having to empty the cup 2-3x per day.

Didn't get much ammonia, but after 3 days the N02 was over 3 ppm, now down to <0.1.

So IME you are probably better off treating it to a full cycle...better safe than sorry.

-R

[Racing1]

Will Do.. Thanks for all the replies. I would rather wait and cure it than loose everything I already have....