Need Live Rock

[IanJ]

Does any one know who has cured rock available, large pieces

[ReeF_LoVeR]

was @ clementi 328 today.

have lots of cured LR.

$18/kg

[Terryz_]

PR cheaper... At 16/kg...

[IanJ]

Terryz

I heard that PR got rock in over the weekend, i assume it would not be cured as yet. Do you know?

Thanks

[Terryz_]

not sure cured anot... perhaps cured...

[panlee]

PR liverock came in last Sat night. Definitely not cured as I bought some.

[jazzben81]

WC LR definitely cured.

big, flat, small all size...

i got all the small branches..

20/kg mind u...

[Rufff]

How can 1 tell if the rocks an LFS is selling have been cured? Take their word 4 it? By the pricing?

Is there an easy way (like just by looking 4 eg.) 2 judge wether the LR we R purchasing is cured? Other than by sight (no dead stuff on it), by smell (mimics the ocean/fresh) ... ??

Should we still quarantine the LR we buy, even tho we have been assured by LFS that they have been cured? How long should the quarantine B?

[hongqixian]

When you add a lot of live rock to your tank, the injured organisms and damaged corals on the rock will die off during the initial cycling period as all the rotting stuff on the rock pollutes the water somewhat and kills off more organisms.

To cure rock, usually people put them in clean saltwater with good aeration and skimming to keep for a period of time, so that any damaged or delicate organisms that are dying or will die off can be gotten rid off from the rock (i guess that they rot off and are skimmed off)

Uncured rock is rock from the sea with bits of corals and living things that die under cycling conditions.

The end product is rock that hopefully has a reasonable amount of healthy life, such as the copepods, amphipods, worms, coralline etc, and has no decaying matter that will pollute your tank. It smells like the sea, not dying or fishy (p.s. dead mushrooms on live rock smell like rotting fish)

Actually, if your tank conditions are good, adding a bit of live rock at the time that might not be cured (sort of fresh) with healthy organisms can introduce more life to your tank. If you treat good live rock like pieces of coral or additions to your tank (which they technically are anyway) with good conditions, you can preserve more of the life on it that you paid for.

did i explain properly? i think my explanation is a bit messy. i haven't been to this forum for a long time.

[SharkBait]

How can 1 tell if the rocks an LFS is selling have been cured? Take their word 4 it? By the pricing?

Is there an easy way (like just by looking 4 eg.) 2 judge wether the LR we R purchasing is cured? Other than by sight (no dead stuff on it), by smell (mimics the ocean/fresh) ... ??

Should we still quarantine the LR we buy, even tho we have been assured by LFS that they have been cured? How long should the quarantine B?

besides smelling,i guess you can tell whether its cured anot by seeing whether the rock is full of algae and other stuff anot. Properly cured rocks usually have nothing visible on it.IMO, its simpler to tell cured rocks from uncured ones in Singapore because its either fiji rocks, tonga branch or the indonesian ones.The indonesian ones are usually uncured and full of algae and what not.

[blueheaven]

some say you put into carbonated water to ensure that there are no mantis shrimp first. but i dunno if the other organisms will die anot....

[IanJ]

Fiji and Tonga rock do not normally have algae attached since the rock tends to undergo a cleaning process prior to shipping. The time it takes to get to Singapore is long enough for decay to start. Most freshly imported Fiji or Tonga rock tends to smell quite bad and needs time to cure. I have seen indonesian rock with and without algae. I looked at algae free rock which smelled real bad and rock with some algae which smelled good. I think it is more by smell to tell if the rock is cured or not. It is also worth noting how long the rock has been in the shops tanks, if it has been in stock for more than a few weeks, there is a good chance that it is will be ok, again smell will confirm this.

I found 20kg of largish Indonesion rock that had plenty of algae on them, i could not detect any foul smell, price was S$8/kg so i added it to my tank without problem. The tangs loved the algae.

[hippo]

Got LR from PR. Lot of coralline algae. But ahh,.. some greenish substance attached to the LR. Someone care to explain it?

[FuEl]

some say you put into carbonated water to ensure that there are no mantis shrimp first. but i dunno if the other organisms will die anot....

Where did you hear that from?! I dont see how your live rock will still remain as live rock after that.

[hongqixian]

yes, the carbonated water will kill a lot of the other stuff on the rock.

I don't know if this is the best or even correct explanation, but i think that the curing process mostly works to clean off all the organisms that were damaged when they were transported. for example, if you took a piece of healthy rock covered with all sorts of coral/algae growth straight from the sea and put it in an established tank with lots of light, good water flow etc, there would not be much cycling or die off (so long as you haven't smashed anything when you put the rock in your tank.) The die off process occurs only if you kill something somehow, by transportation, using the rock as base rock, etc etc etc. That's why using dead base rock and live rock on top to seed it is a better idea. There will be little die off and the algae growth and any coral/organism growth will conform to your rock structure; you have light loving algae and corals on top, worms growing below etc.