Keeping/curing live rock for future use

[wayneb]

Have a question. What is needed to prepare, keep, cure live rock now for future use?

I would like to have available a large quality of active live rock to use when I'm able to set up

my 120g and hopefully avoid some of the headaches involved with algae, nitrate/nitrites, etc.

problems that I had when I set up my 29g bio.

Also still have the holy rock that was the cause of the 29g crashing the first time. I like the

shape of it and hope to use it in the 120. What can I do to deaden it to get rid of the algae

spore (?) and recure it? I realize it will probably be best to isolate it initially.

thanks,

wayne

[+dapettit]

We bought our tank with live rock on 4th of July. We didn't put the live rock into until late November. We stored all our rock in a 50 gallon trash can and a couple of large rubbermaid tubs. I put a power head in each one and would occasionally poor in some Purple Up. I did a couple of water changes (when I thought about) and when the time came Robin did the rockscaping.

Dave-

[Wryknow]

You can clean the holey rock by gving it a dip in distilled white vinegar. That would disolve the outer layer of rock completely.

[wayneb]

Thanks Dave and Wryknow.

Should I add a heater to the container of live rock? Plus should I use straight dilluted vinegar or water it down a bit (say 1 to 10 like I read for cleaning glass tanks)? Also how long should I soak it in vinegar?

wayne

[Starsprinkle Rainbowsmile]

If you have the time, cook the rock. Do a quick google on "cooking live rock".

[wayneb]

The article was interesting, however the one thing I lack right now is the time. Might try using both the cooking method (modified) and the vinegar bath on the holy rock and any uncured rock I obtain.

wayne

[muddybluewater]

If you are going to keep it alive then you will have to treat it as if it was in the tank. Keep circulation and heat on it. You will have to do water changes. You will not have to use a light but there will not be any coraline on it when it goes in to the new tank. This is not a problem though it will grow back. Unfortunately there is no easy way to keep live rock live with out some effort.

[offroadodge]

so when i purchased my 100lbs of live rock i put it in a rubbermaid trash can for a bout a month doing water changes until the ammonia was "0". I also threw in there 2 nice HOLEY rocks to cycle them with the LR. All is good. I bought my LR off EBAY for like $315/100lbs. Then i purchased another 30lbs from Prof. So with all that and the 2 holey rocks i hv about 140lbs or LR in main tank, and 15lbs in the refugium.The 15lbs came from Shane at Fishy Business. I to have a 120g main tank.

[wayneb]

Just got my RO/DI unit in so will wait until that is set up and running before doing the LR thing. I couldn't see running to HEB and getting RO every few days trying to mix up large batches of salt water to keep the live rock going. Still question about vinegar bath - use it straight or delute it and if so what % ro to vinegar?

Thanks,

wayne