Curing Live Rock?

[Robwsup]

Now that the store has been open a little while, we are starting to move more live rock (up to 300lbs/week so far) than we can keep cured. While uncured rock is fine for new tanks, my "five pounds a week" customers don't want to bomb their tanks with the ammonia and decay associated with new, uncured live rock.

We already scrub and Poly-Ox all new rock. It is then divided into a few 55 gallon plastic drums with XP3 (I got a deal) canister filters. 100% water changes are done every couple of days. I'd like to add protein skimming, but do not want to purchase four skimmer (one for each barrel).

I'm considering a 300 gallon tub, with a 100 gallon macroalgae sump attached. Would a large fluidized bed filter work well in this situation?

I've also considered saltwater pressure-washing the rock to remove more of the dead and dying organics before putting them into the curing bins.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[JT]

Hi Rob.

Long time no talk.

As one who has worked closely with Joy at Harbor Aquatics for a number of years, I've cleaned and cured my fair share of rock.. upwards of 2-3 LD3's per month at times.

Pressure washing is a real BAD idea, you'll loose way too much good stuff. The main thing you want to clean off the rock are sponges, I've never been very fond of hardcore scrubbing of live rock. There are just way too many cool things that came in on live rock that can be saved if handled with care.

Go for the 300gal tub, A LOT of water flow, and a big protein skimmer. Add a metal halide over it and that's all you need to cure live rock properly.

 

[JennM]

Hi Rob.


Go for the 300gal tub, A LOT of water flow, and a big protein skimmer. Add a metal halide over it and that's all you need to cure live rock properly.

That's what I've got, sorta. I've got a 150-gal and a 100-gal tub plumbed together with an ETSS 1000 knockoff protein skimmer, a halide pendant over each vat, and a couple of recirculating pumps.

No chemicals to oxidize - we do add two part calcium and alk buffer but that's about it.

We get rock that comes in pretty clean - we don't scrub per se, but we do knock off chicken liver sponges and stuff, but leave caulerpa and stuff on it.

Doesn't take much time to cure it either.

Jenn

 

[JT]

Jenn:

Big old school downdrafts like you are using are probably the best skimmers for curing rock. I've switched them out on several occassions for Beckett based injector models and ended up wanting to go back to downdraft style.

Water flow is also always underestimated when curing rock. On our 6000 gal rock system @ Harbor, we had close to 16,000GPH of flow through the four 1500 gallon poly pools.

Heavy skimming, resulting in high O2 levels, combined with water flow and a large water volume were part of the success of our system and why we were also able to keep fish and inverts in the same while curing new shipments of rock every two weeks.

 

[JennM]

I started with a Becket... hated it. Clogged up all the time, a devil to clean. Changed it out for a venturi (4') I got for free with a job lot of stuff, then I landed on that downdraft for $50 from a guy with a basement fish room who did well in FW but couldn't figure out saltwater. Best $50 I ever spent.

We've got downdrafts on all our sell systems, they rock!

I could use more flow in my LR vat but it does the job.

Jenn

 

[Robwsup]

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Kalkbreath]

Rob what happened to Atlantis or Bio Reef ? on Beach blvd or was it Atlantic Blvd ? Where are you in JAx

 

[Robwsup]

BioReef, the large maintenance company here is still in business.

Atlantis shut down last fall, but reopened as a small, Friday-Sunday retail store. He does mostly maintenance now.

We are in Orange Park, just south of Jacksonville. We have a decent location, as we are the only saltwater store in the county (Clay County), and have become known as the "coral shop" due to our large-ish (I had more in SC) selection of coral, including the rarely sold SPS and boutique Zoanthids.

Maybe we can do some business soon.

 

[Kalkbreath]

The tall eight foot skimmers that Arlington Aquarium had years ago work great as live rock skimmers. Dont know where they went but the skimmers may have followed the 4x4x8 show tank that Atlantis Aquarium picked up second hand from AA.