BB reefers? why buy live rock when you're gonna cook it.........................

The Reefer91

New member
....................i mean, should i just buy some base rock and cook it , and let it come alive? i'm getting 50lbs of base rock from a friend who has had it in his tank for 3 years. would that be alive enough to help with the growth of coralline and bactieria?
 
Some people have started a "myth" (or lie, whichever you prefer) that "cooking" liverock kills everything on it.
This is not the case.
I have probably "cooked" more live rock than most, more times than most.
Every time I do these are some of the life left on it:
Coraline
Pods
Sponges
Worms
Snails
Crabs
Bacteria (though I can't see them ;) )
Many corals
and more.

The less calcium demanding algaes (and more importantly the phosphorous inside the rock that fuels algae problems and stunts some corals' growth) is gone. However, certain algaes such as valonia can also remain.

You certainly can start with base rock and seed it with bacteria to "cook" that.
But many people already have the rock and are experiencing problems so they do not buy more.
They just clean up what they have.

hth,
Sean
 
sorry, i misphrased that. i meant, could i cook base rock and put it in a tank after it's cooked. then, later on, seed it" extra" with some live rock
 
I had zoos, star pylops, all types of pods, feather dusters, ect,... survive the cooking process without any problems. Just keep the water you are cooking in around 80 with a heater, and use a bubbler to keep air in there and you will be fine, nothing but what was already dead will die. We are doing the same thing that people do while curing liver rock, only we are doing it longer.

Whiskey
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6582625#post6582625 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by The Reefer91
sorry, i misphrased that. i meant, could i cook base rock and put it in a tank after it's cooked. then, later on, seed it" extra" with some live rock

Sure, but if you are seeding it with a lot of live rock, you may want to cook that too ;).

Whiskey
 
Why buy Live Rock when you are going to cook it?
Because the Live Rock is already richly filled with bacteria. The Cooking process will kill off algaes and prevent algaes from growing. it gives you the opportunity to allow the rock to shed (all the dead, dying material and the internal detritus) in an algae free environment. You get clean, cycled, healthy live rock thats ready for ANY display...BB or DSB.
 
I cooked some rocks covered with turf algae for 9 months in an extra aquarium with all the light blocked out but otherwise fully set up (skimmer, heater, filter sock). After the cooking the rocks had alot of sponges, tunicates and small tube worms. There were even small encrusting Porites corals that were still alive and which have started to grow again now that they are back under lights.
Allen
 
Back
Top