So I had some live rock laying out on the deck for more or less a year. It has seen all the seasons throughout this time and I'm assuming even though it was at one time fully cured live rock in my tank, everything is wiped out and it is just dry rock. Now I want to put it back. I took all of the rock, rinsed each piece off with tap water and let it dry inside the house for a couple of days. Then on my water change day, I put the dried rock along with water-change-water in a 10 gallon tub. I threw in 2 powerheads and a heater and it has been sitting like this for about a week and a half now.
I thought since it was just dry rock, it doesn't really need to be cured and that it would just be seeded by my water change water. I took some water params and found undetectable nitrates and nitrite. But ammonia came up at what seemed to be .50 ppm. I was pretty surprised by this. The caveat is that I'm using the API test kit which I know aren't the most reliable. Either way, I was planning to let this sit for atleast another week until I get some time for aquascaping. I'll also retest in a couple of days. But given the circumstances, do you think the .50 ppm ammonia reading was correct?
I thought since it was just dry rock, it doesn't really need to be cured and that it would just be seeded by my water change water. I took some water params and found undetectable nitrates and nitrite. But ammonia came up at what seemed to be .50 ppm. I was pretty surprised by this. The caveat is that I'm using the API test kit which I know aren't the most reliable. Either way, I was planning to let this sit for atleast another week until I get some time for aquascaping. I'll also retest in a couple of days. But given the circumstances, do you think the .50 ppm ammonia reading was correct?
