I was at a lfs (some of you might know the lfs I'm talking about by the time you finish reading this post) and mentioned to the owner that there is no circulation on the live rocks that he is selling. He told me that there is no need for circulation and heater. He stated that he keeps his rocks at 60 degrees. At this temp, most of the living things in/on the rocks will die, but not the bacteria. He says that, he is not concerned about the living things that come with the live rocks other than the bacteria. So what do you think about this? I'm planing on curing my rocks and trying to think what method to use. By method, I mean vodka, Brightwells mb7 etc....
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Curing rocks
- Thread starter ricwilli
- Start date
They might be right, I have always cured live rock with a powerhead and a heater. I might be overly cautious, but when I setup a tank I want to be overly cautious. I think we have learned time and time again that when you cut corners on the setup, you pay for it for a long time.
Dr. Tim or biospira will cycle them overnight, that is what we have done.
Dr. Tim or biospira will cycle them overnight, that is what we have done.
While not having a heater is one thing, not having circulation makes a nasty smelly cesspool. 
Heater is not a big deal and things like sponges, tiny feather dusters, little ball anemones and even aptasia can survive in cold water.
Even when levels of ammonia in my little bucket got so high, you think it would kill everything. This little experiment of mine makes me question the whole anaerobic bacteria thing and what we know about it. This is the second time I've cured rock and Ammonia was off the chart, nitrites were high, but nitrates were 0. I think some of our biological bacteria needs light to be productive.
Heater is not a big deal and things like sponges, tiny feather dusters, little ball anemones and even aptasia can survive in cold water.
Even when levels of ammonia in my little bucket got so high, you think it would kill everything. This little experiment of mine makes me question the whole anaerobic bacteria thing and what we know about it. This is the second time I've cured rock and Ammonia was off the chart, nitrites were high, but nitrates were 0. I think some of our biological bacteria needs light to be productive.
i have been rebuilding after the disaster Irene left behind and decided to re-cook my rock to get gid of the biologicals and hair algea covering the rockwork.....what i did is remove the rock from the tank and put it in a 50 /50 mix of old tank water and newly mixed s/w in a 30 gal garbage can with a lid. i added a heater set at 70* 2 powerheads and 1/2 a cup of hydrogen peroxide. the hair algea died off within 2 weeks and the rock kept most of the coraline that was growing.
i changed the water every week for the next 6 weeks and when done i dosed brightwells mb7 for 2 weeks ... at the end of this process all the rock was clean as a whistle and had no smell .......now this was an extreeme case because the rock was in a tank that had total die off and was a putred mess to begin with...i did this because i didnt much care if i killed off any good bacteria because i was ok with starting my biological cycle from scratch if i had to but it seems to have worked just fine because if you see the tank now it does not look like it was completely dead just a few months ago.......
hope it helps.......happy reefing ......al
i changed the water every week for the next 6 weeks and when done i dosed brightwells mb7 for 2 weeks ... at the end of this process all the rock was clean as a whistle and had no smell .......now this was an extreeme case because the rock was in a tank that had total die off and was a putred mess to begin with...i did this because i didnt much care if i killed off any good bacteria because i was ok with starting my biological cycle from scratch if i had to but it seems to have worked just fine because if you see the tank now it does not look like it was completely dead just a few months ago.......
hope it helps.......happy reefing ......al