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Salt dip?

I

IrradiatedReef

Was wondering... It has been a long time since I had to buy new rock. The rock I am going to be buying is uncured. Does anyone salt dip uncured rock anymore to get rid of alot of the pests inside?
 
B

Brian

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
I haven't heard of anyone doing that recently....

I think your best bet is to put the rock in a seperate tank or rubbermaid container and cure it in there for a few weeks.
 
E

eholceker

NJRC Member
either hyper or hypo dipping uncured live rock will work at getting both good and bad critters off the rock. you will still need to cure it though. anything in particular you are looking to remove?
 
E

eholceker

NJRC Member
if you are really that concerned just cure the rock and don't do any water changes. you will probablly kill almost everything except for some pods and worms.
 
I

IrradiatedReef

Its going to be a brand new tank and this is the first time im going to use uncured rock. My current tank I got the rock out of an established tank so it was cured and pest free.

Last thing I want is pests in a new tank.

So once I get the rock, should I put it in a tub for a few weeks or throw it in the tank to cure/cycle.. I plan to have the rock in for about a month before I add livestock other then snails and hermits...
 
E

eholceker

NJRC Member
if it were my i would cure it in the tank. depending on what fish you get a lot of your pest critters have a good chance of getting eaten. wrasses and pseudochromis do a great job of eating those microscopic crusteaceans that you don't want in your tank. You just need to be realistic that there will be no 100% sure way to remove all the pest critters from your rock with out effecting the good ones.
 
I

IrradiatedReef

Oh yea, I know you cant get rid of them all. I blame my curiosity in this on the good Drs Foster and Smith.... They tend to over do it on their website lol
Good info, but sometimes... well you know.
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
I think a quick salt dip is a good idea, especially if the rock is coming from Florida.

NJRC just did a LR Group Buy (3.50/# for premium rock) so a bunch of us are curing now. We may dip ours before we put it into our tank. I'm not anxious to add any more "unwanteds" to my tank. Being able to chase even ONE nasty invert out is reason enough, IMO.

Could probably just add some extra salt to the curing bucket just before we move the rock into our main system.
 
I

IrradiatedReef

"Submerse the new rock into a bucket filled with saltwater with a specific gravity of 1.035 to 1.040 for one minute. Any invertebrates including mantis shrimp, bristle worms, and crabs will quickly evacuate from the rock and into the bucket of water.

Remove the live rock from the bucket and sort through the invertebrates in the bucket. Determine those you want to add to your system and discard unwanted pests. Bristle worms still attached to the rock can be removed with a pair of needle-nosed pliers or tweezers. This technique can be used to remove unwanted pests before or after curing your newly arrived live rock."

This is copied directly from the Drs...


The process makes sence to me just to help pop out at least some of the pests. I think I am going to do the 1 min. dip with the first few rocks. If I see a lot of things I dont want in my tank coming off, then ill do the rest. If they seem to be relativly clean, I just might skip the rest. Only thing I REALLY hate are bristle worms. They give me the heebie-jeebies.
 
E

eholceker

NJRC Member
Phyl,
sorry for going off topic but i found 6 dead gorilla crabs floating in my rock tub. Just a FYI for everyone to be on the look out.
 
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