Curing dead rock w/ or w/out lights on?

[beermanic]

I am planning on getting some live rock as soon as I get my tank up and running. I have a list of things to get done first. 1 - decide on lighting and get lights 2 - finish building my protien skimmer 3 - setup my water circulation to kill all dead spots 4. Get all the extras installed and running to stabalize my environment (Heaters, powerheads, PH, etc 5 - ready to add live(Dead rocks)

I have decided on getting some live Premium Fiji Live Rock(Not sure what premium means). A LFS about 1hr away near Cleveland $2.55/Lb. I will have to pick it up at the store 2 hours after it arrives at the local airport. When I bring it home I will stick it in my tank and start the curing process.

My question is should I keep the lights on or off during the curing process. I read many opinions and I am not sure which one is best.

Pro's - Leave on because some of the live stuff that needs light might die while it is curing otherwise. Use only blue lights this prevents algae growth

Con's - If you leave the light on you will have a huge algae bloom that will be very difficult to get rid of.

From this I am leaning toward on w/ blue lights. What are your opinions???
*celebrate

 

[sinasster]

buy cured live rock and leave the uncurred to the experienced reefers who are preparred to handle all the unwanted lil critters. all you really need is some nice purple coraline algae and then choose your own reef inhabitants.

 

[BrianH]

I would recommend using some light while curing your rock. If you have the actinics, use them. If your going to use daylight lighting, use bulbs with a color temperature of at least 6500k or higher.
Brian

 

[beermanic]

sinasster,

I cannot afford to buy enough cured rock to make it worth while. I will be paying way too much and not really have that much to show. Idealy I would buy only cured but I am not in the position to do this plus, the only way to learn to get rid of unwanted critters is to get some and figure out how to get rid of them. I would rather learn what to do know than have to wait until later and find out the hard way once everything is established or grown.

BrianH,

I don't have any actinics or any other tubes for that matter yet. I am planning on probably buying some next week. I am going to get either VHO tubes or a metal halide, I haven't decided yet and am definately going to get some actinics but haven't decided how many yet.

Thanks for all the great feedback.

 

[dattack]

My last setup I had 20 lbs of uncured live rock and 160 lbs of dead rock (white) and they all became live within 3 months.

When you buy rocks that are "cured" at an online vendor, chances are pretty good that they become uncured if they have to travel across the country in cold weather, especially on a cold cargo plain. So there is not point IMO to buy cured online. You will see dieoff either way during transport.

The only time I would buy cured live rock is locally at the fish store or from another reefer.

I have seen some of the supposedly cured live rocks from some of the LA wholesalers, and believe me, they are not cured. Still stink with dieoff.

 

[wayne at home]

Lights off I think - anything fragile enough to need lighting to survive probably won't make it thto' curing anyway.
Skim like hell during curing, else you may get such a big ammonia spike it kills more off your desirable hitchhikers anyway. You'll have more than nough for the cycle bacteria to survive

 

[eseow]

I would say use the actinic lighting for examination only of the rocks. If there is nothing left to save with lighting, leave it off and use your protein skimmer. I would also ck the tank every fews days for ammonia. This way you can see how much die off occurs and how well your live rock can handle the ammonia.

 

[beermanic]

Oh, I plan on checking the ammonia every day, until the cycling is complete. My tank is going to consist of 4-55 Gallon sections and I will start curing the rock in one compartment. When the ammonia level gets too high in one compartment I will add the second, third than forth compartments.

I also read somewhere that I can get the cycling started by going to grocery store and buying a piece of shrimp and to just simply throw it in the tank and watch the cycling begin. When the readings drops the tank will be cycled.