Curing "live" dry rock. When is it cured?

[unclepancake]

Got 30 lbs of dry live rock I believe to be pukani and fiji.

- I picked at all the rocks and took out any debris inside and around the rocks.
- High pressure washed just to make sure. Bleached with RODI x3 weeks. Went through the cloudy water and stinky smells.
-Rinsed with RODI thoroughly over and over again til I could barely smell bleach.
-Placed back in container with fresh RODI water with Brightwell dechlorinator x 1 week.
-tested with chlorine tester and no trace no smell.
-emptied water, rinsed again with RODI and placed back into container with fresh RODI saltwater at 1.025 x 2 weeks.
-used smart start complete bacteria and frozen mysis to start the ammonia spike. increased temp to 82 F for bacteria growth
-2 days later ammonia spike at 1.0 ppm
-then nitrite at 0.25 ppm
-then nitrate at 10 ppm

-no hitchhikers and water is crystal clear, current parameters as of today :

sg: 1.026
pH: 8.2
alk: 8 dkh
calc: 430
mag: 1300
phos: 0 ppm
ammonia: 0.5 ppm
nitrite: 0.25 ppm
nitrate: 10 ppm

My main question is, do I have to wait til the ammonia and nitrite levels go back down to acceptable levels or will that not happen at all? I was thinking that ammonia turns into nitrite then turns into nitrate? What am I missing here? I feel like if I put the rocks in now I will be putting the nutrients (NH, NO) into the main tank. 30 gallon cube tank with refugium/sump has been established for 5 months now mixed reef with fish.

 

[icedearth15324]

At this point, basically you want to see ammonia at 0. If you are using an API test kit, you may already be there. An easy way to tell is if you let your ammonia get to around 5, it should be 0 in a relatively short time.

 

[unclepancake]

nutrients spiked

Thanks for responding. Ammonia is just chilling between 0.5 and 1.0 ppm. Nitrite spiked to 1.0 ppm as well as nitrate spiked to 20ppm. I added the remaining startsmart bacteria to catch it up nitrite/nitrate levels. Temperature is at 86 F now with a wave pump.

Got 30 lbs of dry live rock I believe to be pukani and fiji.

- I picked at all the rocks and took out any debris inside and around the rocks.
- High pressure washed just to make sure. Bleached with RODI x3 weeks. Went through the cloudy water and stinky smells.
-Rinsed with RODI thoroughly over and over again til I could barely smell bleach.
-Placed back in container with fresh RODI water with Brightwell dechlorinator x 1 week.
-tested with chlorine tester and no trace no smell.
-emptied water, rinsed again with RODI and placed back into container with fresh RODI saltwater at 1.025 x 2 weeks.
-used smart start complete bacteria and frozen mysis to start the ammonia spike. increased temp to 82 F for bacteria growth
-2 days later ammonia spike at 1.0 ppm
-then nitrite at 0.25 ppm
-then nitrate at 10 ppm

-no hitchhikers and water is crystal clear, current parameters as of today :

sg: 1.026
pH: 8.2
alk: 8 dkh
calc: 430
mag: 1300
phos: 0 ppm
ammonia: 0.5 ppm
nitrite: 0.25 ppm
nitrate: 10 ppm

My main question is, do I have to wait til the ammonia and nitrite levels go back down to acceptable levels or will that not happen at all? I was thinking that ammonia turns into nitrite then turns into nitrate? What am I missing here? I feel like if I put the rocks in now I will be putting the nutrients (NH, NO) into the main tank. 30 gallon cube tank with refugium/sump has been established for 5 months now mixed reef with fish.

 

[Sawdonkey]

So are you adding 30 lbs to the existing tank and cycling it in another tank first? I’d probably just skip all of the steps you describe and just add the new rock to the existing tank over a few weeks. Your existing bacteria culture should be able to overcome the new rock and you should see little fluctuation in your parameters.

 

[unclepancake]

So are you adding 30 lbs to the existing tank and cycling it in another tank first? I’d probably just skip all of the steps you describe and just add the new rock to the existing tank over a few weeks. Your existing bacteria culture should be able to overcome the new rock and you should see little fluctuation in your parameters.

Yes I am adding new rock to an existing tank that has 15 lbs of live rock already seeded and growing coralline. Used a cpl rocks from main tank to seed new rocks in a tupperware container. I would've put the new rocks in the display tank but I have a bunch of fish and frags I didn't want to mess up. I bleached the dead live rocks and didn't want any trace of chloramines in the tank. I will be putting in the new rocks one by one in the refugium. Thanks for info.

update 10:35 am: ammonia still chilling at 1.0 ppm x 3 days now
nitrite stable at 1.0 ppm x2 days
nitrate still climbing (x3 days) at 40 ppm