February 1999:
I purchased a case of Fiji live rock which was shipped uncured. I started to cure the live rock in a two large 7 gallon tubs with light, heat and aeration for about 2-3 days. However, after the first few days I decided that the amount of ammonia being given off was a problem and the rock would mature better in a filtered environment. I moved the rock to the main tank (which was empty) and set up the full filter and protein skimmer set up. The larger water volume and filtration allowed the chemicals to balance much more quickly. I also used a live bacterial starter to get the filters working quickly.
The rocks formed brown hair algae and disgorged a lot of dead worms which I cleaned off periodically.
The rock initially had a lot of green, mauve and pink surface algae along with some small corals
and sponges. When fully matured, most of the green and pink algae has disappeared, although the
green has started to come back. It would be really good to see the nice pink algae return but
so far I haven't found a way to do that. So far I did not see any other live
creatures coming out of the live rock apart from a couple of small snails.
New Introductions:
Just the live rock.
Water Status:
Not yet available.