Dead rock to live rock?

[saltwater freak]

Hello all i have a question

I have a bunch of dead rock i got first i bleached it for about 4 days,than i soaked it in strong prime mixture changing the water every day for 4 days.

Than i have been doing 50% water changes everyday (using a power head to blast the rock with every water change)i have 2 power heads in there each 660 gallon per hour or 2500 liters per hour with a heater
covering the container so it is completely dark
All of the water changes have been with 0TDS ro/di water

did this for about 2.5 weeks
and the reading was 0tds and 0 phosphates

than i put water from my reef tanks water changes 0/0/0(tested before i used it the rock vat)

i had an ammonia spike and it has gone down and the nitrites have gone up

Now for the question lol

if the bucket goes through a cycle at the end of it will the rock be live rock or cured dead rock( I am not seeding with any live rock)

I am not planing on using the rock for at least 1 year so i am in no rush to have the process finish

sorry if my question is stupid is sounds like the answer is in the question i just want to be sure

I am not using dead rock because of cost (if you add up the man hours it takes to clean it will be worth $100 a lb lol)i am using it to not bring pests in to my system, i have a 75 gallon a 65 gallon and a nano cube with about 200lbs of rock and i have 0 pests and 0 aptasia Due to starting with about 70 lbs of live rock and only adding dry rock ever since
I plan to start a 220 gallon when i move next year and wanted to be prepared for it with either clean dead rock or aqua cultured live rock

Sorry for the long read

Thanks
Mike

[Vandal996]

Put a piece of live rock from your established system to seed the cured rock with bacteria. You can also use a poly filter or other such material to seed the rock. I keep a couple of these in my sump for this purpose.

[mthomp]

Im not really understanding but. you say your not seeding it , but ask will it be live.

I dont think it will be live rock unless it has actual organisims living in and on it. now What i think you are doing is curing your rock. I am sure someone with a little more knowledge will chime in though.

[reef2]

if the rock goes through a cycle it will be live rock after the cycle.

[saltwater freak]

I was just asking if the bucket cycles there must be some sort of nitrogen cycle happening
and i was wondering if it was the rock breaking down the ammonia nitrites and the nitrates or just the water cycling

i was going to seed the rock closer to when i am going to use it

i did not want it to become live and then i have to keep it live for the whole year

i want it to be clean dry it out and have cured dead rock to seed closer to my 220 build

I think i will just keep it wet and then when i use it the rock will be ready for my system after i seed it with rock from my tanks
Like i said sorry for the stupid question
A question not asked is an answer not found
Thanks for all of your time

[reef2]

after u bleached the rock u can dry it out and save it for later but it will need to cycled. since u took old water from ur dt and used it in the dead rock buckets u started a cycle. now if u dry it out it will need to go through a cycle again. there is no way to cure the dead rock then dry it out and not have a cycle when u add it to a tank.

[reef2]

from what u say it sounds like u should of bleached the rock. dried it out and when time gets closer to setting up the new tank then u should of cycled the dry rock.