Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveK
I agree with the post Gecko made, except for the two above items.
While curing live rock in a large plastic trash can, I do not recommend you change water, this will only lengthen the process. You want that large ammonia spike and nitrite spike to get get things going. You will discard this water later anyway.
If you do cure the live rock in the main tank, you should make a 100% water change after the rock is cured. This is done to remove the nitrates created as part of the curing process.
If there is a huge amount of die off, you may wish to make a partial water change to get the smell down. Yes, during the curing process it can smell rather bad.
I don't recommend scrubbing live rock. You will scrub off a lot of what you want, including the bacteria film. Just take the rock and swish it around in the water, getting the loose stuff off. If there is a lot of loose material, like the rock looks like it's covered in cotton, you can do this in a small bucket, so you don't have all the unwanted "glop" in the main curing container.
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Dave,
I must disagree with you on this one. Why would you let your ammonia and nitrate levels to spike? This will kill everything on the rock that we are so desperately trying to keep alive.
This is why it’s important to do water changes. Would you rather kill everything to rush the process or would you rather take your time do a couple of water changes and save more of the life on the rock?
As for scrubbing the rock, you want to scrape off all the stuff dying. This will greatly reduce your ammonia and nitrate levels. This in combination with the water changes will save a lot of life on the rock.
