initial sand/ uncured rock setup

[sgallagher7]

Since im going to be purchasing uncured live rock for my new 75 gal. tank, would it make sense to put the sand in after the majority of dead stuff has been removed/blown off of the live rock? I want to get the sequence right.

[murfman]

I place my rock 1st then the sand for the reason that it keeps the sand from supporting the rock and then when a digging creature pulls out the sand, it causes a rock slide. you can cycle both at the same time. Once you have a 0 readings, I would get some live sand from club members or a LFS and add that to seed your sand. I'd also recommend you do that with some LR too.

[RTKBA308]

Yes. Don't put your sand in until the rock is cured, it's much easier to clean the bare bottom.

[sgallagher7]

To keep the sand clean it seemed to make sense to wait until the rock is fairly cured. Is approx. 2 weeks about how long I should wait before putting in the sand?

[RTKBA308]

I would wait till it's fully cured, it'll take 3-4 weeks. Are you doing water changes and do you have a skimmer going?

[sgallagher7]

I havn't even got water in it yet. Want to gather as much information prior as possible. I want to do things in the correct order and eliminate as many headaches as possible. I do plan on running the skimmer 24/7 as well as do my water changes as the nitrates/phosphates indicate.

[RTKBA308]

In that case, I would cure the rock in a rubbermaid brute. You'll be moving the rock around a lot and risk dropping a piece and breaking the glass.

Here is what I did. I had two rubbermaid brute containers, both had powerheads and heaters, full of saltwater. As soon as I received my rock, I scrubbed it, tried to get anything black and smelly off. Then, I put the rock into one container. About 24hours later, I placed the rock into the second container. Before putting it in, I again tried to pick off all the dead and smelly stuff. I did that for three days. So I did three 100% water changes. After that, I would do about 20% water changes, until cured.

I added RO/DI water to my tank, heated it up to 79 degrees and then started adding salt to a salinity of 1.024. At this point I added the rock, waited a few days and added sand.

Of coarse there are a lot of different ways of doing this, but the way I did it worked out great for me.

[Lotus99]

I bought uncured, and was worried it would be too messy and smelly while it cured in the display tank, but it really wasn't that bad. It cured faster than I hoped, luckily.

It also gave us some time to study the rock for rescaping.

We did have a lot of dead stuff on the bottom of the tank, and I'm really glad we got sand after it was cured. After you add the sand, test for a week or two before you add your cleanup crew, just to make sure everything is on target.

[jaw969]

I also cured live rock the same way as RTKBA308. Curing live rock can be smelly and dirty. I didn't want to put the rock in a tank until it was cured.

[sgallagher7]

Thanks for all the great information. Il be getting rock in a few weeks and wanted to make sure. As for the scrubbing. Do you loose much in the case of possible soft corals or other goog hitchikers? How vigorous of a scrubbing? I assume the water in the tubs is of normal salinity, not hypo or hyper?

[RTKBA308]

Originally posted by sgallagher7
Thanks for all the great information. Il be getting rock in a few weeks and wanted to make sure. As for the scrubbing. Do you loose much in the case of possible soft corals or other goog hitchikers? How vigorous of a scrubbing? I assume the water in the tubs is of normal salinity, not hypo or hyper?

Definitely don't scrub too much, I made that mistake. Let your nose tell you what to remove . The salinity should be around 1.022-1.025

[jaw969]

If you are curing the rock ...... it's dead and has nothing good to brush off. Toothbrush would work well. Is the rock you are purchasing dry and totally dead??

I always keep the salinity a little lower when curing live rock (don't know if it's right but that's how I do it)

[smacdone]

Is there a reason to get uncured rock besides the price?

[sgallagher7]

I was leaning toward the uncured to try and preserve as much life on the rock as possible. I fugured what survives is a good thing to have.

[hmello@bermexin]

Do it the way RTKBA308 said and just before each move to the other rubbermaid shake the bejesus out of the rock first. This should (after doing it before each move) get most of the detritus off of the rock. Also if you put something in the bottom of the rubbermaids to keep the rock off of the bottom you will start to see some of the mobile hitch hikers in the bottom of the rubbermaids after you remove the rock. Then you can pick and choose what you want of them in your display or in your sump-fuge. I also have heard of doing one freshwater dip on the rock that will dislodge any things that are in the crevices and don't come out with the normal salt water. This dip is only about a minute in the freshwater that is up to temperature and PH but no salt.
Good luck and have fun.

[hmello@bermexin]

Do it the way RTKBA308 said and just before each move to the other rubbermaid shake the bejesus out of the rock first. This should (after doing it before each move) get most of the detritus off of the rock. Also if you put something in the bottom of the rubbermaids to keep the rock off of the bottom you will start to see some of the mobile hitch hikers in the bottom of the rubbermaids after you remove the rock. Then you can pick and choose what you want of them in your display or in your sump-fuge. I also have heard of doing one freshwater dip on the rock that will dislodge any things that are in the crevices and don't come out with the normal salt water. This dip is only about a minute in the freshwater that is up to temperature and PH but no salt. Again you will be able to pick out what goes where.
Good luck and have fun.