How long will LR stink?

[bjoiner]

I added almost 50lbs of live rock to the tank forgetting to ask if it was cured or not. After less than a day I'm positive it wasn't. The stench is killing me!

I should have cured it properly, by cleaning it in another container first, but I just added it to the new tank. That said, there were dead bristle worms floating around and the smell seemed to get worse. So last night I removed the rock, cleaned it with a toothbrush, did 100% water change (no livestock yet), and put it back in the tank. I'm fairly certain I got most of the decaying matter off the rock, but the smell still lingers. Any idea how long it will take to diminish?

 

[Anonymous]

It will stink a few days after the cycle is done. Do you have a skimmer running now? That will help a lot.

Basically, the stink is from the decaying matter in the water/rock. You need to remove as much of the dying and dead critter in there, and make sure the water is as good as you can so that amino/nitrite/nitrate won't kill additional critters. Having skimmer and do a good cleaning before adding the rock will help a lot. Most people can get the stink out in about a week, but if you neglect it most of the time, it can stink for months.

 

[waymack97]

phew
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how to make hash

 

[bjoiner]

The smell has pretty much gone away and has been replaced by the lesser stench of the acrylic polish. (Got a couple of nice scratches before I got the tank setup.)

Ammonia has spiked and is starting to drop. Nitrite is very high hopefully will start to drop as well.

I was thinking of getting a couple more pieces of live rock, purely for aquascaping/aesthetic reasons.