newbie with newbie question.

new to the hobbie new to the site. Todays question is......When reefers say to cure a rock. Meaning some of the life has died and needs to be cured to stop the die off correct? Well say for instance I buy a piece of the internet that has to be cured becuase of transit time....well if the organisms have died how can curing correct that? I mean once there dead there dead right?

 

[I mean once there dead there dead right?[/QUOTE]

No you can make rock live again by having it in an aquarium that is astablished.

 

Basically, curing rock means to cycle it. Cycling just means that you allow the rock to develop colonies of bacteria to handle the ammonia and nitrite produced by fish and livestock. You can buy "pre-cured" rock, but usually when it ships, you get die off so you need to cycle it again. I would suggest buying base rock or dry rock (same thing IMO).

 

Not really. most rock will still have some life on it still, even after shipping it. Curing will allow the dead parts to rot or fall off. leaving you with the live/or returning to life rock. if you add rock into your tank with the "dead" junk still on it, it will cause your tank to cycle again because your tank and the bacteria in it need to break down all the dead junk. so cycling it and allowing it to die off outside your display tank will allow the cycle to be smaller and hopefully last a shorter amount of time. Keep in mind when you add any new rock, you will most likely have some kind of cycle. Hope this helps.


and basically +1 to what Guitarman said above!

 

Thats closest to the answer I was looking for but maybe I need you to be a little more specific. YOur answer only holds true if some bacteria is still alive on it correct? Lets say for instance dry rock....if I had nothing in my tank but a piece of dry rock, this could never come alive correct? You have to have some form of bacteria corraline to spread to become more wouldn't you???

 

coraline can come from the smallest piece of live rock and seed the rest of your tank. Base rock will become live rock once it is introduced into your tank. it takes time but the bacteria will form and grown on its own. and this will become a primary source of biological filtration.

 

but of you are setting up a new tank you can just put you new live rock in and cycle it with the tank or am i wrong about that?

 

You can cycle base rock... I have a mix of base an LR in my tank but if you choose base rock only, it will also develop the necessary bacteria... just takes more time, so don't rush things. You MUST have patience in this hobby, otherwise you will loose a lot of fish and money. And most of us made that mistake in the beginning. Of course, it's nice to get a tank, design it and stock it with our "dream fish" but please don't make that mistake... let the tank cycly for at least a month... I had mine cycle for 2 monthes... just to make sure...