Almost killed myself, wife and dogs. Novices, Please read!

Good tip for novices and experts. Before cooking live rocks, it is a good idea to let it sun dry for a few days.
 
So what exactly do you do when you get these? just leave them?
Or is the consensus to remove with lots of protection?
Anyone use the green lasers on them?
 
reelfishy said:
Before cooking live rocks, it is a good idea to let it sun dry for a few days.
Click to expand...
No! That's not what cooking means.


'Cooking' live rocks wins first prize for the stupidest term in a hobby full of stupid terms. 'Cooking' live rock has nothing to do with cooking, or boiling, or microwaving or any form of heat whatsoever. It has nothing to do with heating rocks and should never have been called 'cooking' in the first place! It was a term someone came up with because they thought it sounded neat, I guess, and describes a process of keeping live rock in the dark, in regular room/aquarium temperature water, for a very long period of time while performing periodic water changes. It has nothing to do with heat, or cooking. And it shouldn't, for obvious reasons.
 
reelfishy said:
Good tip for novices and experts. Before cooking live rocks, it is a good idea to let it sun dry for a few days.
Click to expand...

Tang Salad said:
No! That's not what cooking means.


'Cooking' live rocks wins first prize for the stupidest term in a hobby full of stupid terms. 'Cooking' live rock has nothing to do with cooking, or boiling, or microwaving or any form of heat whatsoever. It has nothing to do with heating rocks and should never have been called 'cooking' in the first place! It was a term someone came up with because they thought it sounded neat, I guess, and describes a process of keeping live rock in the dark, in regular room/aquarium temperature water, for a very long period of time while performing periodic water changes. It has nothing to do with heat, or cooking. And it shouldn't, for obvious reasons.
Click to expand...

Hmm.. I never explained how to cook rocks nor did I describe what "cooking" meant. Cooking can mean a lot of things like Muratic Acid cooking, Lanthanum Chloride cooking, what you've just mentioned above and people actually cooking it with heat as well. What I've said was, you should let it sun dry so any unwanted organisms will NOT survive. I use almost the same method as you but turn the heater up so the water temp is at about 88~90 degrees after sun drying it.
 
reelfishy said:
Hmm.. I never explained how to cook rocks nor did I describe what "cooking" meant. Cooking can mean a lot of things like Muratic Acid cooking, Lanthanum Chloride cooking, what you've just mentioned above and people actually cooking it with heat as well. What I've said was, you should let it sun dry so any unwanted organisms will NOT survive. I use almost the same method as you but turn the heater up so the water temp is at about 88~90 degrees after sun drying it.
Click to expand...
Ok, sorry if I jumped the gun there. For all the misconceptions in this hobby, this is one which can have very serious consequences not just for the aquarium, but for the aquarist. Bad hair algae is one thing... a dead spouse is another. So I guess it's just frustrating to see the term applied so casually to so many different things. This is not good for people new to the hobby.

For what it's worth, drying rock in the sun may kill the polyps, but it doesn't by any means guarantee that the toxin within the polyps is neutralized. I know you didn't say anything to the contrary... I'm just pointing that out for others who might read this.
 
good to hear everything is ok now. i have heard of boiling rocks prior to putting them in the tank but not after taking them out to basically become dry rock. what was the purpose of that?

just read further and saw your response.. get it now.
 
Knowing is one thing, but it is also a good idea to let other people know in case they find you on the floor after you've been playing with your tank one day.
 
boiling live rock.

boiling live rock.

This is indeed a learning experience for me..and here's my story... yesterday I decided to boil my rock to kill pieces of aptasia that was becoming a problem in my tank. I started putting a piece at a time in a pot and began boiling them. My cousin came by to say hi and we began talking and I forget the rock is at a full boil for 30 mins.our conversation starts to come to a close and I notice she starts coughing as if something is irritating her, she leaves the house and I cut of the stove and I realized the kitchen is full of fumes and I open the windows and front door to get it out of the house. I leave the house to do some errands and on my way back I start feeling as if I'm getting a cold. Chest pain, chills, headache. I go to sleep waking up from time to time and realizing that I'm sweating and am soaking wet. I wake up in the morning feeling as if someone hit with a bat ! About an hour or to I start feeling much better and started drinking a lot of water to flush my system. I'm very lucky to be alive. NEVER BOIL LIVE ROCK !!!!
 
fishlife4life said:
This is indeed a learning experience for me..and here's my story... yesterday I decided to boil my rock to kill pieces of aptasia that was becoming a problem in my tank. I started putting a piece at a time in a pot and began boiling them. My cousin came by to say hi and we began talking and I forget the rock is at a full boil for 30 mins.our conversation starts to come to a close and I notice she starts coughing as if something is irritating her, she leaves the house and I cut of the stove and I realized the kitchen is full of fumes and I open the windows and front door to get it out of the house. I leave the house to do some errands and on my way back I start feeling as if I'm getting a cold. Chest pain, chills, headache. I go to sleep waking up from time to time and realizing that I'm sweating and am soaking wet. I wake up in the morning feeling as if someone hit with a bat ! About an hour or to I start feeling much better and started drinking a lot of water to flush my system. I'm very lucky to be alive. NEVER BOIL LIVE ROCK !!!!
Click to expand...


I presume you have checked with your cousin that she is ok?
 
Palytoxin is no joke.

We don't need long drawn out stories, just a warning... in a sticky

DO NOT BOIL ROCK. It is a really dumb thing to do. (If I had a $100 for each time I heard someone was going to boil rocks this hobby would be free).

I was hit by using hot water out of the tap to clean an overflow part. Yay for the ER!
 
Well, reviving an old thread, but a good one. I did the same thing last night. The difference, instead of boiling the rocks, I soaked them in vinegar, cooking the Z&P with acid.

I'm living the same story in the OPs first post now without the trip to the ER. It's about 18hrs after exposure and the FLU like symptoms are gone, but the chest pain is still here as well as the labored breathing.

TAKE HEAD! Vinegar cooking can cause the same airborne toxin as boiling.
 
reelfishy said:
Good tip for novices and experts. Before cooking live rocks, it is a good idea to let it sun dry for a few days.
Click to expand...

how are you so sure the toxin gets degraded by the sun after a few days? what if the corals tissue dries up and the toxin is still in there? not that simple as u would think i think :hmm1:
 
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