To add or not to add?

cure it in a rubbermaid container?

I would just get a trash can and a pump to keep the water moving. Drop the rock in and let it cure.

what he said :agree:

I think you have an adequate amount of rock as is, if you dd more without going through a lengthy "cooking " process, you are spinning your wheels But you could be a bunch, cook it and then swap it out for some of your old rock , then cook it off, just a thought

$1.99 a pound is a good deal and i would jump right on that. I added 75lbs to my tank that was completely uncured and all i had going on for like 2 months was like some brown algae and then they turned bright green and now they're completely purple.

I wouldn't recommend doing what i did because i got lucky and had no fish or coral loss at all.

Just cure the rock really good and you can be happy about your amazing deal on live rock.

I'm w/Doug, Great deals are only great if you need the item, unless the rock you have is very dense (not porous enough to house ample bacteria for bio-filtration) or you want to scape the tank some more or you plan on upgrading within the next year to a larger tank, it would be overkill. If you want to take advantage of the deal and you have some Christmas money burning a hole in your pocket. then cook in a trash can and enjoy. Remember it's not the quantity of the rock it's the quality and sometimes more rock is simply more rock you don't need. Fish need room to swim, coral need room to grow and the more rock you have the less water volume you have for these. Good luck

+1

Seamore said:

I'm w/Doug, Great deals are only great if you need the item, unless the rock you have is very dense (not porous enough to house ample bacteria for bio-filtration) or you want to scape the tank some more or you plan on upgrading within the next year to a larger tank, it would be overkill. If you want to take advantage of the deal and you have some Christmas money burning a hole in your pocket. then cook in a trash can and enjoy. Remember it's not the quantity of the rock it's the quality and sometimes more rock is simply more rock you don't need. Fish need room to swim, coral need room to grow and the more rock you have the less water volume you have for these. Good luck

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IMO that is very sound advice

Hmm, I never thought of it like that. My idea was more rock to stack higher for the corals that like to be near the top. But if it in anyway could damage what I all ready have, then I’ll probably not add it.

Thanks for all your suggestions!

I would need to see some pictures of what your tank currently looks like. The better deal may be to re-aquascape it instead of creating a stone wall in it.

I'm a bit of a rock hoarder myself. I have enough rock to set up a 75 or 90 between my 30, my 10 and another 10 stacked to the brim with rock. I guess I just always feel like something is goiing to happen and live rock is going to stop being available

jenglish said:

I guess I just always feel like something is goiing to happen and live rock is going to stop being available

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You are not off the mark on that guess at all. It may be happening sooner rather than later the way things have been going lately.

Understood, but how much live rock do you need to seed a garbage can full of "non-live" cheep cooked base rock? Not much! Hording is a factor contributing to the end of the supply and why there is cultured live rock available. Buy more if you "need" it to rockscape your tank for the look you want, 200 lbs in a 220G tank is enough for all your bio-filtration (assuming quality porous rock was used). Cycle it in a can before adding it to your existing set up to minimize the odds of setting off a cycle in the 220G. Add 5-10 lbs increments over time to further minimize the effect and as before enjoy! Depending on your light(s) (pics as Aquawolf said and more info would help) you may need to add rock for SPS placement, or if you have sufficient light simply let the SPS grow to the brim. Corals will fill the space given proper care and time, look better than most rock and by the way the are in a fact fuzzy live rocks too. Good luck.

I will probably do that, do I need to cook the live that is in a sense cooked all ready? The rock is a great quality and has been in my LFS's holding tank for months. I'll try and upload some pictures later, but I do kind of want to add maybe 50lbs more to the middle.

This may sound funny but smell the rock, if it smells like a clean beach it's probably ready, if it smells... well you know the rest... A word of caution, is there any hair algae in the LFS systems? If so it may indicate high TDS in their RO water and after "months" in their holding tank the rock could have a lot of absorbed phosphates in it (you will want to cook). If not buy the rock now on sale, have the LFS tag yours (zip-ties work well) and have them hold it and add it incrementally over three weeks with weekly WC to reduce the odds of kicking off a cycle. You'll have all the rock in two more weeks and little chance of disrupting your tank. Good luck

Good advice Seamore. Good to see you again as well.

Yeah, sounds good, I'll have to do that. No hair algae, and oddly, the rock doesn't really have an odor to it. I talked to the LFS about some of the pieces, and apparently they broke down a 600 gallon a couple of days ago and don't have room to keep all the rock. A lot of it sold pretty quickly.

At that price I am amazed they had any left after 1 or 2 days.