How live will rock become if you cure it in a tank with no fish?

[mustangcaleb]

i have 100 lbs easy of "dead" rock that ive been thinking about curing. i have a few tanks sitting around and recently took my 25g long down. so i built a stand to hold another 25g ontop of my previous 25g, and they will run to a 30g sump with a modded asm g2. but when thinking about it, with no other life, the rock wont exactly be "live" will it? just cured? it cant accumulate the bacteria with no fish correct?

 

[ericmcj31]

throw you some food in there-that'll keep the cycle going--

 

[ericmcj31]

oh-didn't see you put 'dead rock' you just put a small piece of your live rock in there and it will seed it; also periodically 'feed' the tank w/ some fish food and that will keep cycle going

 

[mustangcaleb]

i may be crazy, but work is slow and i was bored, i grabbed all the materials from work for free except a few fittings, but check this out, its not pretty but its going in my basement and is purely for curing this rock, then if it works well possibly frag tanks...

heres the stack

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heres the sump

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here is one of the main tanks that will house the rock

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and heres the plumbing, i ended up with 1" pvc so im sure its overkill and may gurgle, also the bottom stand has an overhang on the back of it. i didnt have the stuff to drill it so i went around it(didnt go behind it bc i want to be able to put it as close to the wall as possible) also used soft line from the pump to keep from having so many 90's. 90s on a gravity fed return didnt bother me like 90s on the pressurized feed side

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[mustangcaleb]

i have about 10-15 lbs of coraline covered LR to put in there with the other rock, also have some sand, but was hoping to go BB on these. i can use the sand to get it going though. i saw an article about switching from crushed coral to sand, and someone mentioned pulling out all the old CC and put it in a stocking. that way you can keep it in the tank to seed everything, but it stays contained. think that would work?

 

[mustangcaleb]

well honestly, i dont even know what im curing this rock for. i already have 40lbs or so in my biocube, which is my currently my only running tank. illl prob cure it and then start playing with purple up or something.

 

[seedless reefer]

I think if you just use water from a water change you will be good no?

Top off/fill with dirty water.

 

[mustangcaleb]

lax man 10;298252 wrote: if you get the "dead rock" coverd in coarline i will by it from you but i only want 3 to 4 pounds but it will take at least a month for it to spread.

how much does it go for with good purple? i may be able to spare a few lbs of the rock i got from my buddy. im going to try his method but this is some of what i got from him.

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[mustangcaleb]

Seedless Reefer;298256 wrote: I think if you just use water from a water change you will be good no?

Top off/fill with dirty water.

this crossed my mind also, would it help much? i do a 5 gallon wc on my biocube every 4-5 days. i could just take the water downstairs into the curing tanks. but the bacteria and beneficial stuff isnt in the water column is it?

 

[mustangcaleb]

ares;298318 wrote: some is, but it would also save you alot of money in salt to use that old water.

didnt think about that :thumbs: