Maturing Dry Rock?

E

ElijahTurtle

How long would it take to mature dry rock in a tank? I was looking at the rock available on marcorocks.com & was wondering how quick it would mature if seeded with a chunk of LR in a tank.
 
i think its really a matter of your conditions, i have marco rocks and it was dry sorta but it still had dirt and debris in it(organic materials), i have it running in my aquarium for a few months now and my parameters are just starting to come down, i would think it would take more time and a gradual increase in bioload to consider it fully mature. you gotta give the bacteria time to colonize. you should check out the faq page on the marco site, i wouldn't put this rock in an establish tank. hope this helps maybe someone else can add to this
 
I used 30lbs(large pieces) of marcorocks in the 130 I setup last July along with maybe 50-60lbs of established LR that I had in the previous 55G. I set it up, let the water clear for a day, tested parameters and transfered everything over. I checked parametes daily and never saw any type of spike...I do however run (GFO)phosphate removing media and carbon. Some have experienced hair algae etc., issues due to phospate spikes with the marco rock but I did not see this and still haven't.

Cheers,
 
Nah my tank isn't even running yet, I had even considered some dead rock at Petsmart that I saw as well. I just don't have room to cure rock around our huse in tubs. So I figured if I started with dead/dry rock & one or two nice pieces of fresh cured rock I could eliminate any issues with the wife from smelling rank water from possible issues while curing it. I'm sure she would just love that! :?
I figured with dead rock, I could add them at my lesure & could be more picky about the pieces I found since my 37G is only 12" from front to back & scaping options are limited. So anything I put in there is going to have to be small/med size.
 
thing is that you need to clean the marco rocks as their is dead stuff in and around the rock...usually letting it cook in vinegar solution and skimming will get the job done then you can seed it with live rock. Marco rocks is very good stuff though as you get quite a bit of rock for the price
 
the guys I talked to in Florida that actually turn dry base rock into live rock to sell, they say 18-24 months
 
I have some Marco rock that I just put in my tank w/o going through process pampee described, I sure wish hadn't had done that now.
While the rock has plenty of stuff on it to kick off the cycle, I also believe that it may be leaching phosphates into the water. :roll:
 
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