How to Properly Cycle or "Cure" Saltwater Live Rock

This article briefly describes the process of buying and curing Live Rock for your saltwater aquarium. Saltwater must have properly cured Live Rock in order to maintain the correct filtration balance.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Live Rock
• Powerheads
• Plastic tote
• Toothbrush

1. 
    
   Laying out your LR of newspaper is a good way to inspect and clean prior to adding into your curing container.

   The first step is to purchase quality Live Rock. This can be done in person either at a LFS (local fish store) or through the internet (sites listed below) usually for a bit cheaper price. Look for LR that has nice shapes and features, lots of purple and red coloring (coraline algae), and avoid pieces with lots of dark green and/or bubbles (bad algae) if you can.

2. 
    
   Using a clean toothbrush to scrape loose detris from the rock will speed up your curing process.

   Once you've selected your LR, you will need to get it home and into fresh saltwater as soon as possible. The longer the rock is exposed to air, the more bacteria and life dies which prolongs the curing process. When inspecting your pieces at home, I always recommend taking a new toothbrush and manually scrubbing the surface area of all rocks. This helps remove dead or dying detris and material.

3. Next step is to add your LR to a container of fresh saltwater. I like to use plastic totes you can purchase at Walmart, or even sytrofoam fish boxes from your LFS. You want the container to be just big enough to store all of your LR and cover it with water. The smaller the better, as it would be good to change the water several times and is wasteful in too large of a container.

4. 
    
   Make sure your LR is completely covered in water and has several powerheads agitating the water.

   It is very important to add pumps or powerheads into your curing container. This helps agitate the loose material and keeps your water from becoming stagnant. Depending on your size of container, you will generally need one to three powerheads. I like to have at least two, one on each side blowing directly into the rock. Every few days I will move the powerhead to a new location on the rock.

5. The last step is the hardest. Waiting. You simply have to wait until the Live Rock cures at this point. The time will vary on the rock, but on average it will take about two weeks. I've had LR cure in as little as one day, up to 4 weeks or more. The more dying detris on the rock the longer it will take.

6. 
    
   LR added to it's new setup!

   How will you know the LR is cured? The best way is to test your levels in your water. By using a quality testing product like Salifert, it will give you accurate readings of your Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate. Once these levels all read 0 (Nitrate can be a bit higher) your LR is cycled and ready to be added to your tank. Another good way of telling is by smell. Properly cured LR will not have a strong odor. If your LR smells quite a bit, it's still in the curing process.

Tips & Warnings

• Typically you will need 1 to 2 pounds of LR per gallon of your tank. Example, a 29g tank will need approximately 29 to 58 pounds of LR.
• Purchase a few extra pounds of LR. Once you get it home, see which pieces work and look best in your setup.
• Look for LR that has unique shapes and lots of holes for corals and fish.
• Changing the curing container water about once a week will help cut down on the smell.
• PATIENCE! Do not add uncured LR to your existing setup. It can cause ammonia/nitrate spikes which can be fatal to your setup.
• Do not buy LR covered in dark green or bubble algae. It will be difficult to remove and very frustrating.

Resources

• Source for powerheads
• Source for Live Rock

[Qualitas]

on 3/4/2009 Cool article, helps me understand a little bit more about what it takes to setup a salt water tank.

[lastgunslinger]

on 2/26/2009 Pretty interesting article. Well written. Thanks for sharing! 5*