How to Cure Live Rock Salt Water in an Aquarium

Many tiny organisms dwell on "live" rock, such as nitrifying bacteria and macroalgae. During collection and transportation, many of these organisms die. Dying live rock becomes smelly, slimy and dangerous for your aquarium. Therefore, the aquarist must remove dying and dead organisms before placing live rock in an aquarium with animals. The process, called "curing," prepares live rock to cultivate new beneficial organisms.

Things You'll Need

  • Live rock
  • Saltwater
  • 30-gallon aquarium
  • Submersible pump and/or aerator
  • Toothbrush
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Instructions

    • 1

      Keep your live rock moist with saltwater at all times.

    • 2

      Scrub rocks thoroughly with a toothbrush, then rinse well in saltwater.

    • 3

      Place rocks in a 30 gallon or larger aquarium that contains no animals but has an aerator and/or submersible pump to keep water moving and well-oxygenated. Fill the aquarium with saltwater of approximately the same pH and temperature as the saltwater in the aquarium in which the live rocks will eventually live.

    • 4

      After one week, empty out saltwater, which may look dirty and possibly have an odor. Replace with fresh saltwater.

    • 5

      Repeat steps two, three and four --- biweekly over the next three to five weeks.

    • 6

      Add new live rock slowly to your actual aquarium after three to five weeks, once the saltwater in which the live rocks are curing starts to stay clean. Begin with a few pieces so that any remaining die-off from the rock will not contaminate your aquarium. This also assures that new life forms on the rocks will not overload your natural filtration by suddenly increasing the tank's "bioload."