A couple of quick questions...

[DarthPadre]

I've read the sticky and have a couple of quick questions.

When adding your first live rocks, the order of operations listed states to put the rocks in the water then mix the salt. Is this correct? This won't affect the living rocks? And why add salt afterwards? Is this because of displacement, or because the rocks will affect the gravity?

Also, after reading a few posts, there seems to be some difference in opinion about getting cured rocks. The sticky is pro curing, but others believe you can miss the cycle unless you cure them yourself. Can people share their experience to give me more information to base my choice on?

Thanks in advanced.

 

[1979camaro]

There are two ways to go about this:

You can have your saltwater mixed in advance, place the rocks, and then add the water. The advantage of this is that you can fuss with the rocks a bit without getting soaked and it also helps determine how stable your rock structure is. The water tends to make things seem more stable than they actually are because it supports some of the weight (yay buoyancy).

Alternatively, you can also mix the saltwater in the tank, let it stabilize, and then add the rock a few days later. You definitely do not want to mix the water in the tank with the rock as the salt will burn everything alive on the rock.


I can understand your confusion on the live rock issue. The advantage of cured LR is that you can avoid the die-off and cycle and start off with more established/lively live rock. Things to consider, however, are that it generally costs more, it is impossible to determine if it is actually cured, and if it is out of water for any extended period of time (e.g. in shipping) it will experience a fair amount of die off anyway leading to a mini-cycle of sorts.

Hopefully that all makes some sense...