Curing Dry Rock

Can I use water change water to fill a tub for curing rock? Would I need to do water changes to this tub? It will be a 100 Gal Stock Tank, with a heater and powerhead.

 

do you mean live rock , Face of Deceit, and not dry rock?

if its dry rock, you just need to rinse it really to get any dust off it IME

Steve

 

Well really taking dry rock into live rock. It won't be part of any system I will be running...just to get fully live healthy rock. I am planning a 170+ gallon tank, which realistically is 6 months out...so I am thinking of getting the rock going now, so in 6-8 months, I can add it and go immediately.

Can I use old water for this, or do I have to get new salt, and mix it? Also, would I have to "feed' this tub to keep bacteria levels up?

 

you can use old water as that will help seed the rock
yes you will have to ghost feed it in order to maintain bacteria IMO
as with no source of nutrients the rock will contain limited bacteria
and thus you could still cycle (experience amonia, nitrite spikes) later when you added it to tank and introduced a larger bio load (fish)

you can certainly cycle it in this method (same deal as in tank with lights off)


Steve

 

Thanks Steve.

 

youll need to rince of the dry rock realy well before hand . as other post sead youll need to feed the backteria i would put a pice of coctail shrimp in there and just get a small cured rock and put it in there you will more than likely lose what coralline it has but youll be intraducing some established bacteria to be born from

i did the same thing for my old ladys tank worked well if you can use some of the water from an established tank you may start to get a small pod population going as well