definition of "cured" live rock

[BBN]

When they say cured does it mean that all living organisms inside of it have been killed? If so wouldn't it be better to have living things w/n the rock? Just curious about this. I saw on ebay someone gave instructions on how to cure and it sounds like the organisms w/n it are basically removed or killed. Please let me know if this is what happens. I'd love to buy some rock off of ebay, but don't want it dead.

 

[OrionGirl]

Cured live rock is rock that has experienced some die off, and the resulting spikes have completed/finished. The die off results when the rock is removed from water for a long period--ie, more than about 2-3 hours. The process shouldn't kill everything off, just some things, like sponges (exposure to air is very bad if you are a sponge), and very sensitive corals, some mobile inverts, etc. Live rock should have coralline algae, macro algaes, ect, that look healthy, as well as being bacterially alive.