How to Cure Live Rock with Little Die Off

Now days with ebay and other places like it. Its easier and cheaper to buy live rock. Shipping it however, causes problems because most of the organisms on it requires water to live. Its shipped damp because of weight issues. So there will be die off. I have came up with a method of curing live rock that after 1 week of curing, it was ready to go in my tank.

In order to cure live rock, you have to know the needs of live rock in order to prevent as little as possible from dieing off. If it all dies, you have dead rock.

So what are the needs?
1. Food
2. Actinic light (Coralline algae thrives under actinic light)
3. Clean water

The first time I ever cured live rock, it was at the LFS I use to work. We had ordered 400lbs of premium fiji live rock and boy did it ever stink! The store manager had us scrub it down with brilo pads to remove all the dead sponges and clams etc. Then we placed it into big tubs with no light and they soaked in their own "filth". Once a week they had us drain the tubs and replace the water, it took 4-6weeks to do it that way. I thought their had to be a better. So when the next shipment came, I bought 2 of the boxes for my new tank setup. I used a 40g plastic tub I bought from walmart and started out to test my theory.

I set the tub up like we did at the store but I put an actinic light on it because I had read how that helps promote coralline algae growth. I left it on 24/7. That took care of the lighting needs.

Well since most organisms other algae that come on live rock are filter feeders I used Marc Weiss Spectra Vital . Here is a quote from the container "Spectra Vital is a revolutionary marine biocatalyst that will bring the organisms in your reef aquarium alive! Many organisms that would normally perish during the curing or acclimation of live rock can now survive, thanks to Spectra Vital. Delicate sponges, tunicates, and filter feeders flourish. Colorful life that you didn't even know existed in your live rock blossoms! Also supplies necessary biocatalysts required by some species of larval fishes to survive and grow. " I also added calcium along with purple up.

Now for the tuff part, water control. I thought well "what if I used a protein skimmer, that should remove a lot of the problems from the die off ? " Then I remembered something is key (or least in my opinion) for shipping fish, SeaChems Prime, Ammonia remover, any other ammonia blocker would work though. My water parameters for the first 2 days were not ideal, but by the 3rd day there was a significant drop in my water tests. They continued to drop and by day 7, everything was at zero. So I placed it in my tank and continued to check my parameters for the first few days to make sure it wasn't just a fluke and everything stayed great.

When it was all said and done. I wound up with a few mushrooms, tunicates, squirts an unknown sea slug along with great coloration from the coralline algae and macro algae.

I hope this helps you all out when it comes to curing your live rock.