Best Practice for cookin' Live Rock

[conorwynne]

Hi all,

I have a plastic dustbin (standard afair) in the garden shed which has been happily cooking LR for around 7 months now.

I have been throwing in food periodically every few weeks to keep it bacterially active, as well as keeping the pods from dying out.

It has numerous powerheads in it, and the temp is set at 24.5C. I don't want to waste any more electricity by keeping it higher. The dustbin is wrapped in cardboard to keep it warm, and this works well - mind you, every time I open the lid the heater is on...

Speaking of which, every week or so I open the lid to let in some fresh air, although it has a small hole drilled in it for this purpose. When the weather warms up, I shall feed an airstone into it so I dont have to open the lid so much.

Now, rather than throwing in the odd cube of mysis, would it not make more sense to use sugar or alcohol?

Should I also run a phosban reactor in it?
Should I perform any water changes in it? It smells normal -- not like bad water at all.

I shall be cooking this rock for another few months -- possibly over a year, or at least until I get the funds together for my new tank.

When the weather gets warmer in the spring, I will run a tunze nano skimmer I have unsused here, or should I bother?

Opinions very welcome.

I shall go and take a pic in a moment, now where did I put that camera...

regards
Conor.

 

[SeanT]

Phosban reactor is not needed.

Here you go.

Originally posted by SeanT
The purpose of "cooking" your rocks is to have the bacteria consume all (or as much) organic material and PO4 stored on, and in, the rock as possible.

The first step to this is commitment.
You have to be willing to remove your rock from the tank.
It doesn't have to be all at once, but I feel if you are going to do this do it all. In stages if that is easier but make sure that all of it gets done.

The new environment you are creating for your rock is to take it from an algal driven to a bacterial driven system.
In order to do this, the rock needs to be in total darkness to retard and eventually kill the algae's on the rock and to give the bacteria time to do the job.

So basically you need tubs to hold the rock.

Equipment needed.
1. Dedication.
2. Tubs to cook rock in. And an equal amount of tubs to hold the rock during waterchanges.
3. A few powerheads.
4. Plenty of buckets.
5. A smug feeling of superiority that you are taking it to "the next level."
6. Saltwater, enough made up to follow the instructions below and to replenish your tank after removing rocks.
Here are the steps:

1. Get into your head and accept the fact you will be making lots of salt water if you aren't lucky enough to have access to filtered NSW.
2. Explain to significant other what is going on so they don't flip out. This process can take up to 2 months. Prepare them in advance so he/she can mark it on the calendar and that they won't nag about it until that date arrives.
3. Setup a tub(s) where the rock is to be cooked. Garages are great for this.
4. Make up enough water to fill tub(s) about halfway and around 5-7 buckets about 60% full.
5. Remove all the rock you want to cook at this stage. (The rock can be removed piece by piece until you are done.) I suggest shutting off the circulation beforehand to minimize dust storms.
6. Take the first piece of rock and dunk it, swish it, very, very well in the first bucket. Then do it again in the 2nd bucket, then the third.
7. Place rock in the tub.
8. Repeat steps 6 & 7 to every piece of rock you want to cook at this time. The reason I suggested 5-7 buckets of water will be evident quickly...as the water quickly turns brown.
9. Place powerhead(s) in the tub and plug in. Position at least one powerhead so that it agitates the surface of the water pretty well. This is to keep the water oxygenated. You can use an air pump for additional oxygenation if you wish. Only one powerhead per tub is needed. Remember the powerheads main responsibility is the oxygenation of the water.
10. Cover the tub. Remember, we want TOTAL darkness.
11. Empty out buckets, restart circulation on main tank.
12. Wait.
13. During the first couple of weeks it is recommended to do a swishing and dunking of the rocks twice a week.
What this entails is to make up enough water to fill up those buckets and the tub the rock is in.
First, lay out your empty tub(s) and fill buckets the same as before.
Then, uncover tub with the rock in it. Take a rock and swish it in the tub it's in to knock any easy to get off junk.
Then, swish it thru the 3 buckets again, and place in the empty tub..
Repeat for all your rocks.
Then empty the tub that all the rocks were cooking in, take it outside and rinse it out with a hose.
Place tub back where it was, fill with new saltwater, add rocks and powerheads, and cover.
Wait again until the next water change.
You will be utterly amazed at how much sand, silt, detritus is at the bottom of the tub and every bucket. It is amazing.
At times the stench was so strong I gagged.

How it works:

Some FAQ's.
When re-introducing the rock to my tank, a month or two from now, should I do that in parts to help minimize any cycling effect(s)...if there are any?
I never have. Really after a very short while, the ammonium cycle has been established. That's not what you're worry about though, it's the stored phosphates and that you have to wait it out.
When they are producing very little detritus - you'll know - then I would use them all at once.

Would running Carbon filtration and/or a PO4 reducing media help/hurry/hinder the process?
I wouldn't fool with it. You don't want the detritus to sit there long enough to rot, release water soluble P again. You want to take it out while it's still locked up in that bacterial detritus.

I would say that 85% of my exposed rock had Bryopsis (hair algae) covering it.
There isn't a single visible strand on any rocks my tank now.
Remember, the key is patience. Let this process run its course.

And a few last minute tidbits I remembered.
Your coralline will die back, recede etc.
My thoughts on this are GREAT!
Now my rock is more porous for additional pods, mysids, worms etc.
Coralline will grow back.
Throughout this process the sponges, and pods on my rock have not died off.
Every time I do a water change they are there and plentiful.

 

[conorwynne]

So basically I should not be feeding it at all? OK so.

What about adding vokda or some other alcohol though? This should give the bacteria a boost no?

I have a second dustbin which I use for mixing salt with RO/DI, do you think it would make sense to heat it up to desired temp, then move ALL the LR from the cooker to this? That way all of the detritus would be gone and the PO4 which it contains won't release into the water column?

But I disagree on not using PO4 removing media, in our tanks, it removes it from the water column right? So why would it not also remove it from the water column in the cooker? Maybe I'll go and test PO4 now...

If the detritus does indeed release it back to the water, then surely it can easily be removed this way?

A note on algae, the rock was originally cooked due to a tank crash and subsequent massive HA bloom (one months holidays with neighbours looking after it), so I decided to cook the lot before starting over. My nano is running with no algae issues at all, and the cooker has been in total darkness for all this time.

However, I removed a rock to examine it tyesterday, and guess what, all algae is gone except a type of bubble algae! How on earth it is still solid green after all that time is amazing. This stuff wont die!

Do you think it would make sense to pop it releasing the spores? Would they then die after another few months?

I totally agree with swishing the LR in buckets, coz I have done so, and the amount of gunk you get is quite astounding. A piece that looks clean, is, in fact, clogged with detritus...

I took two pics, but dont see any benefit in uploading them, its just two dustbins in my shed

 

[conorwynne]

Results of PO4 test : 0.65mg/l

If I run a phosban reactor (one beside the cooker unused) this should remove all of that.

Should I add magnesium? alk and calc? Or just do a water change?

All advise greatly appreciated.
Conor.

 

[SeanT]

Add nothing.