Curing live rock?

[Freezekougra]

What happens when you "cure" live rock? Do you rid it of dead organisms and stuff, or do you try to grow a colony of bacteria like you do with a filter in a FW tank?

I googled some guides that told me to check for ammonia and nitrates to see if the rock was cured, but I wasn't told to ADD any ammonia for bacteria to feed on

 

[Otto_VonBacon]

Pretty much.

When you cure the rock it causes a die off of organisms living on/in the rock that would happen in your tank if you didin't first cure it. This die off will spike ammonia, leading to nitrites and nitrates. Ammo will go down, nitrates will go down, and nitrites will go down after a 50% water change. Then you can add fish(gradually) after you are 100% certain everything has reached 0, or if you cured in a separate container you can add it to the tank(after everything in the container has reached 0).

"Live rock needs to be "cured" to allow the plant and marine life, especially sponges, which live on the rock, to undergo a natural die-back, without polluting the aquarium water. As the organisms on the rock die, they produce a large amount of waste material that creates a very large ammonia spike that can be toxic to an existing system." taken from Dr.Foster & Smith's Peteducation

A lot more here.
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=16+2249&aid=2833

Welcome to marine keeping!

 

[Freezekougra]

thanks ^^

 

[caribemob]

so i just put three large pieces of cured live rock in my new salt water tank, plus i have two canisters ready, i'm looking to do a fish only tank, do i still need special lighting for the live rock and fish or no

 

[Otto_VonBacon]

Not really, unless you want corals.