Curing LR: Too many water changes?

[RyanH]

I'm curing some LR and want to know if it is possible to do too many water changes. Is doing a 50% water change ever day too much? Any downside? Any upside?

[Siddroww]

IMO its best to let nature take its coarse . Right now I am cycling a 150g w/ 100#s uncured LR and have not done a water change yet . Its been two weeks and a day and my amonia has already spiked and dropped to almost nill , I have not even wasted a test for nitrates . I feel its best to be patient and give it 4-6 weeks to run its coarse . I'll do a 40g water change after I have 0 amo and nitrite .

Honestly its a waste of money to do it every day. I dont think you will hurt anything but your wallet though if it makes you feel better doing it . Myself i'll tuck all that cash back for corals .

[RyanH]

I guess my question is related to the ammonia spike. Is it necessary? If the ammonia goes really high, won't it kill alot of the life on the rock? By doing a bunch of water changes, maybe I can prevent a big spike and preserve more life?

But then again, is the ammonia spike necessary to make sure that adequate nitrifying bacteria colonies are developed to handle the bio load?

[SlowBoat]

You will get alot of varying answers to that question. From my experience there seems to be two common methods. One method suggests changing water daily/weekly to prevent the ammonia from reaching toxic levels in hopes of keeping as much as possible living. The other is to let nature run its course and let the rock cure with minimal or no lighting and very few water changes.

An ammonia spike is not necessary for the growth of nitrifying bacteria, the bacteria will develop according to the amount of load in your tank/water.

I decided to go with the no lights and 1 water change during a two week period and then put the water in the tank for another two week period with atinics for lighting.

[rgardiner]

The more frequent you do water changes, the lower the ammonia spike, and a greater variety of organisms should survive. The only downside of more changes would be cost and effort.

[clk2609]

i say: be patient, very patient...espeically in this reef thing.

when i cure live rock, i do a partial water change... maybe 25% every 2 weeks and let my rock cure for 5-6 weeks.

i also run a protein skimmer and a pump with a decent amount of current to get all the "dead" stuff off the rock. This will help speed the process.

You will know when the rock is ready if it does not smell like rotten eggs or when you do not see black decaying stuff on rock, but go mainly by smell
;
just my opinion

[kevinpo]

I cured my rock in 100 gal Rubbermaid tubs and did 100% water changes shaking each piece in a bucket before transferring it to the new water. The first water change was 24 hrs then 48 hrs then 72 hrs. I ran a skimmer and heater also. I was able to keep all the coralline algae and lots of life including 4 free corals that came with the rock :) It cured in 14-18 days. I used the sniff method also before putting it in the display tank. I kept the rock outside in sunlight from 7AM - 1PM. There were 2 pieces that didn't cure until after 18 days.

HTH,
Kevin