Curing Live Rock – How to Cure Live Rock In a Bucket - An Easy to Follow Guide
Welcome to Simple Reefs. We are a very new website dedicated to showing you how you can have your very own simple marine aquarium without breaking the bank. This article forms part of our series on starting a simple, budget, marine aquarium or reef. Today we are going to show you how to cure live rock in a bucket. This is a big article so grab a coffee or a tea and let’s go.
If you need to catch up on this subject. You can check out our article on Live Rock, Dry Rock, and Life Rock for a simple explanation of the differences. You can also take a look at our article on how Dry Rock can save you tons of money. If you are undecided on how to start your rock scape but would like to see big savings. For help on choosing a decent piece of Live Rock and what pests to look for, take a look at our article on what to look for when purchasing Live Rock.
Note: Please keep in mind that Simple Reefs is a very new website. Some information may be incomplete, some links may not be active, and some articles may be unfinished. Please bear with us while we build.Â
We aren’t going to go into the subject of whether you should cure live rock or what curing live rock means, in this article. We have covered those topics in their own article so feel free to click the link if you would like to check that out. If you don’t have any residents in your aquarium, you can cure the rock in the aquarium itself so click this link to check that article out.
Don’t forget to take a look at our article on What You Need to Get Started Curing Live Rock to make sure you have everything ready and then let’s start.
Start by Scrubbing The Rock
You are going to want to remove any dead organics from the rock that you can possibly remove. The general rule of thumb is that anything that is black or smelly will need to come off.
I would also suggest removing sponges as they tend to die very easily when transported or when added to a new aquarium. I have cured Live Rock with sponges, not removed them, and had them survive. With the rock they came on still covered in them to this day. But if the rock has been shipped overnight or over a few days the sponge will likely be dead.
To do this, simply use a scrubbing brush with some fairly robust bristles. You don’t want anything too firm that will take the top layer of the rock off but anything too soft will be useless. I find the cheap, white, dish scrubbing brushes that cost about 50p each are the perfect option. Simply take your brush and scrub anything black off of the rock and scrub off any sponges. You may need to use a dull butter knife, or similar, to get some of the more stubborn bits off.
This would be a good opportunity to examine the rock for pests. We have gone into detail on this subject in our article on what to look for when purchasing Live Rock so take a look and thoroughly examine your rock for pests. Live Rock is inherently risky business, though. Aiptasia can hide in the rocks, as can many other pests. It will be almost impossible to remove everything nasty from the cracks and crevices so keep in mind that you may be introducing problems into your aquarium.
Once you are done with scrubbing, you can rinse the rock. Freshwater will probably suffice to do this but a safer option would be some saltwater. Once the rock is clean, we can move onto the next step.
How to Cure Live Rock
Okay, so we have everything we need to get started. A bucket, salt water (mixed with RODI water to 1.025sg), a heater, an ammonia test kit, a nitrate test kit, and something to move the water like a wavemaker or powerhead. Now we need to pick a spot for the bucket. It needs to go somewhere that it won’t be in the way as this process can take weeks.
We need to place the bucket out of direct sunlight so not in a conservatory or right in the window. We want some light to enter the bucket but not too much. Too much light will cause a bunch of nuisance algae growth that we don’t need. When you have picked a spot, you are ready to start.
- Fill your bucket up about two thirds full with saltwater.
- Place your heater into the water set to around 26 degrees Celsius (79 Fahrenheit). Allow the water to warm.
- Place your wavemaker or powerhead in the bucket and turn it on to get the water moving.
- Place your rock into the water, making sure it is completely submerged and water is circulating around it. You may need to top the water up a little here depending on the size of your rock.
- Now it is time for patience. This could take awhile.
The idea behind curing the rock is that the organics on the rock will die off in a controlled environment rather than polluting your tank and upsetting your aquarium’s residents. That, obviously, means that the water is going to get dirty. Very dirty, in fact. This is where our Ammonia test comes in.
The First Week
All of these steps take place in the first week of curing the rock and will differ just a little from the subsequent steps that take place after the first week. There is a chance that, after 7 days, your rock may be ready. Say, for example, there wasn’t any die off or only a very small amount. We will be testing our water to confirm this so have your test kit ready.
At The 3 Day Mark
This is something we want to be doing after the rock has been curing in the bucket for three days.
- Test your water for ammonia using your ammonia test kit. Make sure you record this result on your phone or a piece of paper so you can check back later on.
- Check the colour of the water and give it a sniff.
- Examine the rock for any obvious dying organics (Anything that has turned black)
- Move the rock into a different position, exposing the surface to the powerhead. We want to make sure all parts of the rock spend some time being blasted by the water movement
We should now have an idea of how much die off we have going on in our water. If the water stinks, or is a slightly yellow colour, the ammonia test will simply act as a confirmation that things are dying. The smell will be the biggest clue.
Ammonia test kits are notoriously unreliable. Be sure to examine it in daylight, even heading outside if you need to, to help identify the test colour. Suffice to say, if you are seeing a reading over 0.5PPM then you definitely have ammonia in the water and the ammonia is too much for the still living bacteria on the rock to process. I would suggest, at this point, if you have an ammonia reading over 8.0 PPM, it’s time to perform a water change.
Change as much of the water as you can. Remember, the solution for pollution is dilution and that is what we are doing here. If you change 100% of the water, you are back down to 0PPM Ammonia, if you change half of the water, you are halving your current Ammonia reading. It’s that simple. I would suggest changing at least 75% of the water and replacing it with clean Saltwater. Though 100% of the water will be better.
If your Ammonia reading is below 8.0PPM, we can leave the rock as it is and move onto the next step. If you don’t have any Ammonia showing at all, we are still going to leave it for a few more days.
At The 5 Day Mark
We do this to make sure we are ready for changing the salt water in our bucket in a couple of days.
- Mix up, or purchase, a new batch of saltwater ready to use in our water change in a couple of days.
At The 7 Day Mark
So we are one week in. This is where we can be a little more sure that the process is working so follow these steps.
- Test your water for ammonia using your test kit. Once again, jot this result down or record it in your phone for future reference.
- Examine the rock for any obvious dying organics (Black stuff).
- Take the rock out of the water and take a medium bristle scrubbing brush and scrub off anything that is black. Get rid of any soft algae, anything that seems to have died, and give the surface a scrub.
- Rinse the rock in saltwater to remove the debris.
This is the first point where we may possibly find that the process has completed or was never necessary in the first place. If your Ammonia test comes back at 0PPM, you may actually be done. The one week mark is, often, the first point at which rocks with virtually no die off will be completely cured. With that being said, this is, also, the point where we may see significant levels of Ammonia and our water may smell quite bad.
If you are lucky enough to have an Ammonia test result of 0PPM at this point. I would suggest leaving it another day or two and then performing the test again. If the Ammonia test is 0PPM again, click this link to see what to do next. If it is above 0PPM, continue on with this guide.
If Your Ammonia Test is Over 0PPM
If you have any Ammonia reading at all, we move onto these next steps.
- Throw away the old water from the bucket and replace with clean saltwater.
- Move the rock around so a different surface of the rock is exposed to the water flow.
Your rock is, clearly, still curing if your Ammonia test is above 0 so we need to keep the process going. We simply throw away the old saltwater and replace it with clean saltwater. We then move onto a cycle of repeating a few things on a regular basis until the rock is cured.
After 7 Days The Process Repeats
The below process now repeats indefinitely until we have an Ammonia test reading come back at 0PPM. As time goes on, we are going to be seeing those Ammonia levels dropping. This portion of the guide requires patience as it may take some time. Follow the steps below and repeat them until you hit that target.
Day 3 of the Week
This process will take place on the third day of the week. So three days after your last water change. If you changed the water on Sunday, you would do this step on Wednesday.
- Test your water for ammonia using your ammonia test kit. Jot the number down for future reference.
- Move the rock into a different position, exposing the surface to the powerhead or wavemaker. We want to make sure all parts of the rock spend some time being blasted by the water movement
If your ammonia reading is above 8.0PPM, we need to do a water change, again. Change as much of the saltwater as you can. If the Ammonia level is below 8.0PPM, you can leave the rock in the bucket. If the Ammonia reading is 0PPM, we will leave the rock a few more days to make sure the reading is accurate.
Day 5 of the Week
We do this on the fifth day of the week to make sure we are ready for changing the salt water in our bucket. So if you changed your water on a Sunday, you would do this step on the Friday.
- Mix up, or purchase, a new batch of saltwater ready to use in our water change in a couple of days.
Day 7 of the Week
We repeat this process every 7 days without fail until the curing process is complete. The 7 day mark is our big water changing day and missing it can stall the process so have some saltwater mixed and ready to go, preferably 48 hours before as instructed in the previous step. If you last changed your water on a Sunday, this step would take place the following Sunday, one week later.
- Test your water for ammonia using your test kit. Jot the number down for future reference.
- Examine the rock for any obvious dying organics (Black stuff).
- Take the rock out of the water. Take a medium bristle scrubbing brush and scrub off anything that is black. Get rid of any soft algae, anything that seems to have died, and give the surface a scrub.
- Rinse the rock in saltwater to remove the debris.
As always, this next step will depend on whether your ammonia reading is under 0PPM or over 0PPM.
If Ammonia Test is Over 0PPM
- Throw away all of the old water from the bucket and replace with clean saltwater.
- Move the rock around so a different surface of the rock is exposed to the water flow.
The process will continue, now, on this loop, until the rock is cured. We have been taking note of our previous ammonia readings so you should be starting to notice a drop in the levels of ammonia. This may take a couple of weeks to really be noticeable. When ammonia levels begin to drop, the rock is progressing well on its path to being fully cured.
Follow the steps for Every 3 Days, Every 5 Days, and Every 7 Days as instructed here until you finally receive a 0PPM Ammonia reading. Meaning there is no Ammonia in the water. When you finally receive a 0PPM Ammonia reading, give it a couple of days and then test again. If your second Ammonia test reading is, again, 0PPM, you can move onto the next step. If not, carry on repeating the weekly test, scrub, and water change cycle.
If Your Ammonia Test is 0PPM
If your ammonia test is 0PPM then we simply need to do one more thing to confirm that our Live Rock is cured.
- Perform a Nitrate Test on the water from the bucket.
Simply perform a Nitrate Test on the water from the bucket. We want to see some Nitrates present in the water to demonstrate that the bacteria on the rock has been processing the ammonia in the water.
Some guides suggest that you carry on curing the rock until the nitrate test levels drop but that doesn’t make a whole ton of sense. If ammonia is being processed, there will be nitrates. Changing the water will drop them. Nitrates are an unavoidable part of the nitrogen cycle.
If there is no ammonia anymore, the nitrates shouldn’t climb. That’s without mentioning that the presence of Nitrites in the water will throw off the reading on the nitrate test. Some people suggest waiting for these nitrite levels to drop but I believe that is a waste of time. Nitrites aren’t a huge problem in marine aquariums. The salt in the water interferes with the mechanism that makes nitrites significantly toxic so we don’t need to think too much about them. In fact, I have only owned one nitrite kit and I ended up never using it beyond my first aquarium. I know some people won’t like me saying that but many people far more knowledgeable than I have explained the process thoroughly.
If we have a successful Nitrate test showing the presence of some Nitrate in the water, even a tiny bit, the curing process is complete and we can add the rock to the aquarium. If there are no Nitrates present, it is still highly possible that the process is complete so you should be okay to add the rock anyway. It is possible that there was no die off at all or we removed the nitrates with our water change.
How Long Will This Take?
It is really hard to say how long curing live rock will take. You may find that you go through the curing process and, after a single week, you have no ammonia and the rock is cured. You may also find that you are 4 weeks in and still finding ammonia in the water. There is no sure fire way to speed things up without risking the health of the rock’s inhabitants.
The best thing you can do is be sure to scrub off any dead matter every time you do a water change and rinse the rock thoroughly. You can also increase water flow to help with that process. The further the rock has travelled and the longer it has been out of water, the more die off you will experience. Stick with the process and be patient. Remember, the only things that happen quickly in marine fish keeping are the bad things.
I hope this guide has helped you. Thanks for reading and stick around to learn much more about marine fish keeping on a budget.
