Curing Dead Rock

[SweetTang]

I have been baking "Dead Rock" for about two weeks now (been dried out, bleached, etc.). I have it baking in a 32 gallon trash can with a lid, heater, and power head. I seeded it with a small piece of live rock and about a cup of live sand from my established tank. I have not had a single spike in water parameters....ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. Everything is still at 0. Should I still wait??? Can I go ahead and put it in my existing tank?? Should I throw a piece of table shrimp in there to jump start it??

Thanks in advance!

[sporto0]

I think you are confusing "curing" with "cycling". Dead rock as you call it has no die off left on it, all the organic material is gone so it will not produce ammonia. "Curing" rock is done when Live Rock is delivered & or has been out of the water for a few days, living things have died thus their decay will create ammonia which is what starts the nitrogen cycle in the saltwater aquarium. There was no reason for you to put a piece of live rock or a cup of sand in with the dead rock, it could have been placed in yout DT as soon as you were done doing whatever to it.

[kzickovich]

+1^^ just rinse it off to get any dust off of it and put it in the tank. If dead rock is all you have for your tank you may want to go to your LFS or find someone local to buy a peice of live rock from to seed your tank.

[SweetTang]

Gotcha....guess I got some bad advice then. I bought an established 75g rr tank that has been up and running for a few years and has about 50lb of LR. I asked on another board what is the best way to add "Dead Rock," and they all told me that I needed to do the whole cycling thing.....

sigh