I just received 15lbs more of Fiji rock. It's been out of the tank, in it's heated insulated shipping container for about 12 hrs. I also received a Prism deluxe skimmer. How long should I cure the rock? I have the container filled with water at 1.027, and the skimmer is breaking in on the side of the container. I've read anywhere from 3 days to 3 weeks, what do you all think?
How Long to Cure Rock
- Thread starter VDub90
- Start date
I would wait a few weeks. test you water after one week and there isnt any more nitrate or ammonia its cycled and cured.
I think you mean nitrite and ammonia. There will probably be some nitrate present, though the amount will hopefully be low.
OK. I'll leave it as is with the skimmer doing it's thing. And I'll test the water in the morning.
I tested the water this morning and ammonia is 0, nitrate 0, and nitrite 0. The skimmer was also pulling some pretty nasty looking bubbles out of the water for the first 8 hours. It's been about 30 hrs now and the bubbles have been real clean looking all day. Is the die off on the rock done? What I'm thinking is, if the water was dirty with die off the skimmer would be picking it up? wouldn't it?
If all your parameters are 0 you are good to go. My tank cycled in 18 days but I still gave it another 30 days to mature before I added the cleaning crew.
Being new I've jumped the gun a few times and ended up losing 2 fish. So I think I'll take it easy and keep the rocks going for a day or 2 more, and re-test, and go from there. I have too much in the tank now to be taking any chances.
Another question. Now the rock has been curing for almost a week now. The ammonia has been 0 since day one, and nitrite is now .15. My question is the rocks are in only 4G of water and producing that small amount of nitrite. Could I put them in the bigger tank? In 29G of water they would only be producing .02, or does it not work that way? cause .02 would probably be undetectable on my kit.
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