Dark Curing Live Rock and Sand

[Saluki2003]

I’m planning to entirely redo my aquascape and want to make sure I’ll be doing everything I can to reduce the amount of uglies.

My plan is to buy live rock from KP Aquatics or Tampa Bay Saltwater as well as some live sand to seed the Fiji Pink. I’d like to add as much beneficial microorganisms as possible before even starting the tank back up.

A few questions about dark curing:
1. When can I add pods?
2. Do I need to feed them with photo? How much?
3. Should I add any cleanup crew during the dark curing?
4. Will this kill coralline algae that’s already on the rocks?

Thanks in advance for any advice you guys can share.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I’m planning to entirely redo my aquascape and want to make sure I’ll be doing everything I can to reduce the amount of uglies.

My plan is to buy live rock from KP Aquatics or Tampa Bay Saltwater as well as some live sand to seed the Fiji Pink. I’d like to add as much beneficial microorganisms as possible before even starting the tank back up.

A few questions about dark curing:
1. When can I add pods?
2. Do I need to feed them with photo? How much?
3. Should I add any cleanup crew during the dark curing?
4. Will this kill coralline algae that’s already on the rocks?

Thanks in advance for any advice you guys can share.

Darkness will stall it but the moment you add light, uglies are inevitable. You can run with reduced white intensity. At the first sign if algae, you can add pods and algae is accomplished by light, shortly after snails such as cerith, nerite, astrea and nassarius can be added

 

[Saluki2003]

This is the video I watched. Makes sense to have the most diverse biome possible going into the tank from the start.

Would there be a benefit of fresh live rock from somewhere like Tampa Bay Saltwater or KP Aquatics instead of live rock from my LFS if I’m going to dark cure and seed with more pods and bacteria?