I am cycling a tank with live rock. Should I take the rock out and give it a scrub in saltwater to remove debris or just leave it alone.
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I placed mine right in the tank. There are beneficial substances in the pores often. You can clean the rock with Gentle blasts from a turkey baster but for dust removal. Focus on the cycle itself. You may be able since its seeded rock skip the addition of ammonia chloride but add a small amount of food to increase ammonia , then you will want to monitor ammonia , When your ammonia is steady at zero for 5 days and Nitrate is steady at 20 or below- You are cycled. Ignore nitrIte Unless sky highI am cycling a tank with live rock. Should I take the rock out and give it a scrub in saltwater to remove debris or just leave it alone.
Gulf live rockWhere did the rock come from
That sounds great I'll do that, My rock has some barnacle looking things on it that are alive will they survive the die. Off from the rock. I would like to keep them.that rock shows up with the maximum degree of bacteria you can have in reefing + animals the ocean procures onto the rocks that reef tanks usually won't keep long term
its ok to brush off or rinse off any decaying matter outside the main tank so that when you set the rock in the larger tank you're not wasting up the water inside, try to insert cleanish rocks into the actual reef for wait time of ten days and you can change water a few times in the leadup
you aren't waiting ten days to gain bacteria, it's full already, you're waiting ten days for dieoff from ocean organisms to cure down to the approximate levels a reef tank will keep long term. If that was my rock and it had a bunch of algaes and tunicates attached as they sometimes do I'd scrape those out with a knife not a brush, to effectively remove them ahead of time, the rock is mainly what you're in it for
clean up the rock manually, set it in some water and be doing water changes for ten days then it's ready for use. you won't need to test things with this kind of rock, just go by smell. if your water smells normal with the rocks in it after ten days begin reefing that's good enough.
Maybe give the tunicates and sponges a judicious look! I have a bland (but interesting) brown tunicate with a hole on either side that has survived and grown for over a year, and I have white ball-shaped sponges that are sitting at the back of the rocks in the shade that have grown for over a year!I say keep them, a reef tank/that rock will handle some death if they dont make it it would be mainly huge stands of algae or tunicates or weird sponges I would scrape off with a knife, a couple barnacles are ok in my opinion