Can dry rock be cured in tap water?

[jejton]

I would like to start curing ( not sure if both occur with dry rock ) my Marco rock but I am having trouble with my RO/DI unit. Can I use tap water in the meantime, with the understanding that at some point I will switch all the water to RO and allow a cycle to happen?

 

[caad3]

To be honest that's what I did for the first two weeks when I cured my Marco Rock. Since I was doing water changes anyway, it didn't make sense to use RO water. I didn't have any ill effectt on my rock. I just made sure it was dechlorinated and PH balanced and the correct Salinity. I also added some live sand from my tank to get things started.

 

[Bob 1000]

During the curing process phosphates will come out of the rock...If you use tap water you will be adding for phosphates.. Good bacteria for fresh and saltwater are different....

 

[bigbris1]

All of the stuff in tap water that you don't want in your reef will be absorbed by the rock & lead to problems down the road. Ask me how I know.

 

[jejton]

Bob- Im not worried so much about cycling as just letting the rock soak so that as much organics will leach as possible, at which point I would then change to rodi salt water and start a cycle with some live rock added in as well to seed.

bigbris - thats more what I was worried about. I have no idea of what the local water quality is like. back in brooklyn it was pretty good but I dont know about suffolk water. I was hoping i could just use dechlorinator and run some carbon and be ok. Anyone else have any thoughts?

 

[Bob 1000]

But, just like you said "just soaking"... Yeah soaking up more phosphates...

Tap water should have no part in any process in anything to do with a reef...Or well kept fowlr..

 

[autoponicz]

what problems are you having with your R/O?
and i will say no to tap water also.
use distilled or buy some r/o from the LFS.

 

[jejton]

The connections are too leaky so I don't have enough pressure to run the unit. I'm waiting to here from the vendor a solution he suggests.

 

[Killerdrgn]

Did you make sure the hoses was all the way into the connectors so when you pull on it it doesn't fall out?

 

[jejton]

I believe I did, but I'll double check.