Cleaning Dry Rock and Do We Need to Cure It?
Welcome to Simple Reefs. We are a very new website dedicated to helping you establish your very own, simple and affordable, marine aquarium. Our mission is to take the elitism, gatekeeping, and complexity out of marine aquarium ownership In this article, we are answering a simple question. Do we need to Cure Dry Rock? We are also giving you a quick guide on how to clean Dry Rock.
We have talked about Dry Rock a fair bit on Simple Reefs. In particular, going into detail on how it can save you a lot of money. As well as explaining the differences between Live Rock, Dry Rock, and Life Rock. But let’s say you want to purchase Dry Rock but have been hearing conflicting information about whether, or not, you need to cure Dry Rock?
This question comes up a lot and I see a bunch of answers. The subject seems to confuse people. I will clarify, before we begin, that we are referring to Curing the Rock in this article. Not to Cycling the Rock. There is so many misunderstandings when it comes to this subject. Read on for more information on the differences between cycling and curing. If you are already aware that your Dry Rock needs curing and have given it a rinse and scrub, click the link here to see how to cure your dry rock.
What Is Curing?
Curing is a process that involves preparing your rock to be added to your aquarium. It could best be compared to the process of hardening something for practical use. Perhaps polymer clay or something along those lines. The same way we cure clay to make it usable, we cure rocks to make them usable in our aquariums.
The reason we do this is because rocks that have been used in an aquarium, or come from the ocean, will be covered in various different types of flora and fauna. Be it algae, invertebrates, bacteria, molluscs, sponges, or even coral. When the rock is removed from the water. These organics begin to quickly die off. When the rock is added to saltwater again, these dead organisms will begin to rot. That rotting will cause the production of a toxic compound known as ammonia. This ammonia can then damage, and kill, the residents of our aquarium.
The curing process allows all of this die off and rotting to occur in a controlled environment. Be it bucket or another aquarium with no residents. That way, the ammonia won’t harm anything and we can remove it from the rocks via water changes. Live Rock (Sometimes known as Wet Rock) is the most common type of rock that might need curing. But Dry Rock can also need curing, as well.
We Aren’t Cycling The Rock Yet
We are not “Cycling” the dry rock here. Cycling and Curing are too different things, though commonly mistaken for each other. Cycling the dry rock is to bring it to life by putting it through a process which will grow bacteria on its surface. When Curing the rock, we are getting the dry rock ready for the process of cycling, in other words turning the dry rock into live rock.
I am always surprised by how much confusion is caused by the mis-titling of these processes. The lack of clarity in the marine fishkeeping hobby is one of the reasons why people make mistakes. Whether it is a lack of understanding on the part of people relating information or just regional differences, I am not sure.
Perhaps it is due to the fact that the curing process is quickly followed by the cycling process but the two methods are different from each other in stark ways.
We will cycle the dry rock but first we are going to cure it. If we cure the rock first, we have more options available to us for cycling the rock. Meaning we can grow our bacteria in the dark in a bucket, we can do it in our aquarium, or even in a sump. For more information on Cycling your Dry Rock, take a look at our article on turning dry rock into live rock.
Do I Need to Cure Dry Rock?
This is an issue that confuses people and for good reason. After all, curing is the process of removing dead organics from the rock. Why should you need to cure Dry Rock? Shouldn’t it be safe to use straight away? It’s been out of the water for a long time, after all. The answer is both yes and no.
The reason we may need to cure Dry Rock is because dead organics may still be found on the rock in spite of it looking clean and white. Those cracks and crevices may be hiding all kinds of dead coral, molluscs, sponges, bacteria and other unwanted things.
As soon as we add the rock to our aquarium, they will begin to rot and create ammonia. I have experience with this. Having used bright white, seemingly clean rock, and the rotting smell stank out my entire living room. Probably stalling my cycling process a fair bit.
Which Dry Rock Needs Curing?
The best way to tell whether your dry rock needs curing is to look at the source of origin. If this is mined rock, for example limestone, taken from a quarry or a similarly terrestrial origin. It is fine to use straight away. If it is a specially made type of aquarium dry rock, for example Life Rock by Carib Sea, it is fine to use straight way. You don’t need to cure.
If it came from the ocean, it will need curing. If you purchased it from a fellow hobbyist who removed it from their tank at some point. It will need curing, even if this was quite a long time ago.
- Mined Rock – Don’t cure it
- Life Rock or other speciality Dry Rock – Don’t cure it
- Instructions on leaflet say safe for immediate use – Don’t cure it
- Man made rock – Don’t cure it
- Dry rock from the ocean – Cure it
- Dry rock from another person’s aquarium – Cure it
- Dry rock from unknown origin but brown or yellow in colour – Cure it
- Dry rock from unknown origin, bright white but obvious dead things – Cure it
Take a look at the rock. You should be able to see anything that looked live at one point on the surface. If there is anything that looks like it may have been live, we should cure it. If the rock is yellow or brown, cure it. If there is residual pink or purple algae on there, we should cure it.
You should be able to check the leaflet or instructions that came with rock purchased from specialist suppliers and they will tell you whether it needs curing or not. Either way, whether we need to cure it or not, there is one thing we need to do before anything else
I will add that this process is only relevant to Dry Rock. If you have Live Rock, rock that is still wet and was recently in an aquarium, we approach the whole thing in a completely different way as detailed in this article right here. Don’t use any of the below techniques.
Let’s Give The Rock A Clean
Don’t go throwing that rock straight into your tank.. First of all, you are going to want to give it a clean. It will definitely have dust on it and there is, more than likely, a bunch of nasty, dead, organisms on there that you can’t see. But will definitely remind you of their presence when you throw them in and they begin to rot in the water.
A quick note if you are using Carib Sea’s Life Rock or any similarly painted dry rock, don’t scrub it or use caustic chemicals. Simply rinse it with some freshwater to get the dust off and you are ready to go.
Cleaning is fairly simple. You can use a medium bristle scrubbing brush and something like white vinegar (make sure it is pure white vinegar, no dyes or additives) or even a citric acid or peroxide solution. Others like to use pure bleach diluted with fresh water. If you choose to do this, make sure the bleach is thin bleach with no dyes or fragrance. In my opinion, vinegar should be enough, at least for this stage. It is very affordable and extremely safe and Simple Reefs is all about saving money.
Make sure you wear gloves when using chemicals. A pair of safety goggles and a respirator, or mask, would help a lot, as well. Safety first, remember. Put some old clothes on, as well. Bleach can do a number of fabrics.
Get deep into the nooks and crannies with your scrubbing brush, removing anything that wants to come off of the rock. If you think that your rock will need Curing, we should put a bit of extra effort in now to make the whole Curing process quicker. Don’t be afraid to grab a pick or a blunt knife and scrape away. Try to get the rock as clean as possible. Doing this now will save you a lot of mess in your aquarium and make your curing, and subsequent cycling, process much quicker.
Give The Rock a Thorough Rinse and Allow it To Dry
You are then going to want to give the rock a serious rinse off. Go the extra mile with this step if you used bleach. Making sure the water runs clean and everything looks, and smells, good. Allow the rock to dry thoroughly.
Take particular care with this step if you used bleach or peroxide. We want the rock to be bone dry. The drying process will allow the chlorine in the bleach to evaporate. Making it safe for our aquarium. This may take multiple days but don’t skip this step.
I always throw in an extra step when dealing with bleach in the marine aquarium setting. Take a bucket and fill it up with RODI fresh water and add some dechlorinating fluid, as per the instructions. Seachem Prime is a fantastic option, here, and quite affordable. I then soak the rocks for 24 hours in the dechlorinating fluid. This will deactivate the chlorine from the bleach. Guaranteeing that the rocks will be safe when dry.
If we don’t need to cure our rock, we can slap it into the aquarium. If we do, we need to move onto the next step which is the actual process of curing the dry rock. You can learn all about that in this article right here. Thanks for reading!
