To Scrub, or Not to Scrub

[werkkrew]

Sorry for asking so many questions today!

I placed my live rock in my tank about 10 days ago and according to some things I read, thats fine.

Since then I have read some more instructions on how to properly cure rock, and some people say its best to scrub it free of any hitchikers and other loose debris first.

Should I take the time to scrub my rock, if so, should I just take a bucket of salt water and scrub it with a regular brush, should I be gentle with it or aggresive?

Thanks again for the help.

[Carlos]

We used to scrub off the rock to remove any dead tissue. Sometimes dead coral or plants or even clams or animals. The rock cures faster is you remove that stuff from it and let the skimmer take care of it.

So yeah, you are scrubbing to remove dead tissue and not to polish the rocks.

Carlos

[dileggi]

But, is it true that you don't want to scrub the hitchhiker's off?

[werkkrew]

Everything I read said that the point of scrubbing was to get a lot of the hitchikers off.

Personally I think it would be neat to see some critters come out of my rock, but a lot of people dont want unpredictable, and potentially undesirable critters coming out of the rocks.

[Carlos]

Again, you are scrubbing off the dead tissue and corals.

[taillonjohn]

I dont scrub my rocks cause I buy fully cured rocks. I think scrubbing the rocks has more to do with scrubbing off the die-off on uncured rocks, or rocks you buy through the mail, so you dont cause a cycle in your tank

Hitchhikers will hide inside the rocks, so scrubbing the rock wont help much to get them out. Thats what QT is for.

Or, you can dip the rocks in freshwater, and definately kill ALL hitchhikers, even the good ones.

[kyman2391]

with my LR i put the pieces in a bucket full of SW and "swashed" it around in the bucket. After i was done you should have seen the water it was brown.