confused about curing LR

[troy1976]

i just bought 15 more lbs of LR, but am confused about curing them i thought to cure you put them in container with SW and power head and let sit, so if this is how to cure LR, when i picked my pieces out off the container they were in with power head and SW the guy told me to cure them before adding to my tank wouldnt they already be cured from sitting in his tub??

[Rue]

Not necessarily. Just having them in the tub keeps the bacteria alive, but there could still be dead stuff on it that needs to go.

If you put the rock in your tank and it still has dying material on it, you'll get nitrates...so it needs to cure completely in a 'normal' tank setting with lights, etc.

If you bought rock from an established display tank, it would be fine.

[troy1976]

ok then that is fine as i did not add them to my tank but can i use a tank that is cycling to cure the rock

[Rue]

Of course! That's what I'm doing. I added my new rock to my frag tank to cure and to get the frag tank cycled. Once the rock is good to go I'll be re-scaping my display tank.

[troy1976]

ok the guy at the LFS told me to cure for about a week would that be enough time, i tested the water and everything was good the ammonia was less than .25 and nitrites were 0 nitrates were between 0 and 5 and ph was about 8.4. i didnt see any spikes in anything about 4 hours after i added the LR

[rageybug]

A week may do it but the longer you can give it, the better.