Cured vs Uncured?
- Thread starter Humhill
- Start date
this is my basic understanding of the difference. and i'm relatively new to this, so someone please correct me if i'm wrong. "uncured" live rock is live rock that has been shipped, out of the water for a period of time, or freshly harvest rock that experiences a large-scale death of the creatures on/in the rock. so basically, when you get live rock shipped to you in a plastic bag, a lot of the critters in it die off. we all know that death of creatures and their decay = nitrates, etc, so you have to keep that rock out of the tank unless you want a nitrate spike. so to get "cured" rock, you put the rock in a separate container and let the nitrifying bacteria do their work and get the nitrate levels down. once the nitrates reach 0, then your rock is "cured" and is safe to put it in the tank. most often the stuff you purchase at the lfs is already cured (at least it is at mine), and there's no need to cure it once you get home with it. but ordering it online is another story...but i don't have any experience with that. sorry for the long explanation, i hope it helps!
Hmmm...perhaps I'm confused.
I thought "uncured" rock was rock that was "fresh" from the water. There are lots of living organisms on it. Some may die off if you put it in the tank. This can cause a spike. But, it also means you get many more live organisms which is a plus to me. If you are just starting a tank, you can cycle with uncured live rock. That is my understanding. For me, I'd rather have fresh uncured live rock and do water changes to avoid chemical spikes than put in nearly dead rock to avoid water spikes.
Cured live rock basically means that most of the live organisms have been killed off before they are put in the tank. This means no nitrate spike but also not many creatures in the tank.
From what I hear, most people with established tanks who want to add in rock add cured rock to avoid destabilizing their tanks.
I also think some people add live rock simply for filter and plan to "decorate it" with corals etc. Cured rock totally makes sense to me in this case. If you want this AND you want rock that is already decorated with lots of cool organisms, I'd go with uncured rock.
I thought "uncured" rock was rock that was "fresh" from the water. There are lots of living organisms on it. Some may die off if you put it in the tank. This can cause a spike. But, it also means you get many more live organisms which is a plus to me. If you are just starting a tank, you can cycle with uncured live rock. That is my understanding. For me, I'd rather have fresh uncured live rock and do water changes to avoid chemical spikes than put in nearly dead rock to avoid water spikes.
Cured live rock basically means that most of the live organisms have been killed off before they are put in the tank. This means no nitrate spike but also not many creatures in the tank.
From what I hear, most people with established tanks who want to add in rock add cured rock to avoid destabilizing their tanks.
I also think some people add live rock simply for filter and plan to "decorate it" with corals etc. Cured rock totally makes sense to me in this case. If you want this AND you want rock that is already decorated with lots of cool organisms, I'd go with uncured rock.
Let me try to put it in my level.
- Journey, your rock (supposingly) never die of. So "curing" doesn't apply.
- Most other LR die in transport. So they need curing. Curing can only be done locally, LFS or at home. Once LR is out of water, it start dying againt. So "uncured" means stinking dead rock. "cured" means has been brought back to life.
- In reality, I am sure it is more like a spectrum. Your LR is probably 90% live. While most is 10% - 20% live at arrival.
- "base rock" is just rock. It is neither cured nor uncured. Can't be dead if there is no live.
- Journey, your rock (supposingly) never die of. So "curing" doesn't apply.
- Most other LR die in transport. So they need curing. Curing can only be done locally, LFS or at home. Once LR is out of water, it start dying againt. So "uncured" means stinking dead rock. "cured" means has been brought back to life.
- In reality, I am sure it is more like a spectrum. Your LR is probably 90% live. While most is 10% - 20% live at arrival.
- "base rock" is just rock. It is neither cured nor uncured. Can't be dead if there is no live.
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I think the dead stuff decintigrates and the remaining life multiplies brining the rock to life. :idea:
by curing the rock you just allow the nitrifying bacteria to eat up the nitrates made by the decaying dead material, and as you leave the rock, over time all the dead stuff is eventually rotted away and taken care of by the bacteria, and only live things are left on the rock. so since all the dead stuff is gone there aren't any nitrates being generated, so the rock is safe to add to the tank. the rock may appear to come to life because all the stuff that has survived begins to grow and become visible on the rock.
thats pretty much it rxdoc, although when curing rock you want to remove as much of the dead/dieing material as possible to speed up the process. But even when most of the visible life on the rock has died there are still tons of surviving cells and organisms deep in the rock that dont die off, after curing and some time in the tank your rock will start to 'bloom' for lack of a better word with all kinds of interesting life. This process can go on for some time, Ive got rock I ordered online and introduced to the tank back in december that has new things appearing on it every week.