Tap water to cure live rock?

FishyReef

FishyReef

Broke Reefer!
I ordered an RO/DI unit with the rest of my supplies last week, and today everything arrived except the RO/DI! The RO/DI was apparently shipped separately and UPS tracking says it won't get here for another week. In the mean time, my live rock (25lb) is scheduled to arrive this Thursday. Can I make up a batch of salt water with tap water to start curing the rock? I know this isn't ideal, but I also know I can't just leave the live rock in the box for another 5 days! Any suggestions??

Thanks!
 
Thanks guys! I went to Petco and bought the water conditioner and just finished making up my first batch of saltwater (woohoo!). Now I have some really dumb beginner questions LOL. How do I get the salt to dissolve? Just wait it out? I didn't want to sacrifice one of my kitchen wooden spoons, and couldn't find anything else long enough that I had on hand to stir it. So for now it's just sitting in a plastic bin and I'm hoping it will dissolve by morning. I also put it in another room (unheated) so that the cats wouldn't get into it, and left the lid off for aeration. Should I put a powerhead in it to help move water around? I presume I need to wait until the salt has dissolved to measure specific gravity to make sure I added enough salt?

Live rock should be delivered tomorrow, so hoping everything will be ready to go! I'm going to just start curing it in the plastic bin and then transfer it to my tank once I get it set up (still need help moving it out of my car, and its looking like that will happen Friday afternoon at this point). Can't wait to play with it!
 
You are going to need a wooden spoon or a large paint stirrer for so many things in your tank. Get used to stealing things from your house to work on your tank! ;) My ex fiance was a medic in the Special Forces. I ended up stealing half his med kit to use the tools in my tank. He was not happy!

Most people drop a powerhead in the bucket, plug it in, and let it mix that way.

Measure your salinity after about 12 hours of mixing, add salt or water to adjust, and let it mix again.
 
Wet N Wild said:
How long will the live rock and live sand be good for in a bucket with salt water?
Click to expand...

Good question! I'm using a pretty heavy duty 20g rubbermaid tub that I picked up on sale at Target, and am going to add a powerhead and heater into the water for circulation. From what I've read, I think it should be okay to cure the live rock in there entirely if I wanted to, although I'd prefer to move to my tank sooner rather than later so that it can start to seed some of my dry rock.
 
FishyReef said:
Good question! I'm using a pretty heavy duty 20g rubbermaid tub that I picked up on sale at Target, and am going to add a powerhead and heater into the water for circulation. From what I've read, I think it should be okay to cure the live rock in there entirely if I wanted to, although I'd prefer to move to my tank sooner rather than later so that it can start to seed some of my dry rock.
Click to expand...

I'm just waiting on my filtration to get here and then I will be ready to order my sand and rock. Just something good to know just in case something doesn't go as planned.
 
Wet N Wild said:
How long will the live rock and live sand be good for in a bucket with salt water?
Click to expand...

Yup you can completely cycle it in a bucket, and besides the powerhead and heater, make sure you keep the lid off, for gas exchange and so the rock can get a little bit of light, but make sure it's not direct sunlight.:D
 
Yep, basically all you need is some water movement (you don't even need light -- if you have light, you will probably get algae growing in it). You could keep sand in a bucket for a long time that way -- weeks or maybe even months.
 
I would not use tap water to cycle your rock. The rock will suck up and hold all the phosphates out of the water. Leading to an algae bloom down the road.
 
Bifferwine said:
Yep, basically all you need is some water movement (you don't even need light -- if you have light, you will probably get algae growing in it). You could keep sand in a bucket for a long time that way -- weeks or maybe even months.
Click to expand...

Question: Doesn't some kind of bacteria need some ambient light from your room...I'm not saying to put a light on it...because yes you would definitely have algae problems...but for some reason I have it stuck in my head that you shouldn't keep live rock in complete darkness...I don't know maybe some connections in my brain got crossed and I am thinking of something completely different...:frustrat:...:mrgreen:
 
bjohanson1234 said:
Most of the bacteria are living inside the rock, so it doesnt get any light at all. You dont need light for live rock to stay live.
Click to expand...

But, while covering the bucket with a lid would keep light out it would also prevent proper gas exchange, which you need, right?

My rocks came last night (still a little damp but not much, and more crumbly than I would have liked). I put them in my plastic bin with a powerhead and heater and salt water made from conditioned tap water (no choice at this point to use RO/DI). The bin is now sitting out in the back stairwell of my apartment (I'm on the top floor, no one will disturb it), *but* they have been doing work on the downstairs apartment and its pretty dusty. I'd prefer to cover the bin entirely with a lid if possible so that nothing unwanted gets in the bucket, but am concerned that I won't get enough oxygen and gas exchange if I do. At this point I've pretty much covered the bin but shifted the lid enough so that there's a few inches of open space for gas exchange. Any other ideas?

Thanks!!
 

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