Come all Rock Cookers

[geno7]

Questions, Questions,

I'm on my 3rd reef tank. I've had 2 up at once and have never had a hair algae outbreak before.

A little history here. I had existing rock in a 40 breader barebottom sps tank. This rock was more than a year old and beautifull rock. I deciceded to upgrade the tank to a 75gal reef ready tank. I ordered more rock from a vendor and received nice large pieces of rock. This rock was added in addition to the rock that I had from the 40 breader. The new rock was cured when I received it

3-4 months later I started noticing a little hair algae on some of the new rock. Another month and wow, it was everywhere. I ran carbon, purchased crabs, reduced feedings, reduced the bioload. Nothing has helped. I have as of now removed the rock for cooking. The best guess I can make is the new rock was saturated with organics.

Here comes the magic question. Does rock cooking truly clean up
the rock? You remove the rock and place it in darkness for 6-8 weeks, swish, and water changes. Is it that truly what happens is the bacteria in the rock are forced to consume the organics? The other thing I question is placing the rock in darkness for 6-8 weeks will kill the algae including all life on the rock, but does it come out truly phospate and nitrate free? Is the bacteria forced to consume the organics? Has anyone got pictures of cooked rock six months later or so.

 

[ConsultantERP]

Let me throw an observation in the mix. I have a tank (30 gallon breeder) that was taken down about 6 months ago, I probably left 2-3 inches of water in it and cover it up with a tarp along with some other things. To this day, I can reach into that tank and pull hair algae out that is still alive, not believing my own eyes (sorta), I threw a little in a 10 gallon I was going to use for pods some day. I now have a nice little crop of hair algae growing in that tank. Oh yeah, also cheato.

With that said, if you have rock that has not been cured, then 2- 3 months of "Cooking" could be good to let the dead material that is deep in the rock be processed. Not to mention the pod population that would probably grow in a big way.

I will say though, I have never "Cooked" rock, and I plan on letteing my new tank sit for months in an attempt to have a good pod population before adding corals, and a mandrin dragonet.

Oh yeah, even if you "Cook" your rock, there is a good chance that a least a small amount of hair algae could be attached to a coral you added at some point.

 

[TheFishGuyLLC]

I cooked about 200 lbs of hair algae covered rock in a rubbermaid container in my kitchen. It worked great. Placed rock in light proof container - covered with fresh mixed RODI salt water- placed a good strong powerhead inside for circulation - took a dish scrubber to the really bad pieces of rock being careful not to knock off any shrooms or zoas - let it sit for a couple of weeks - scrubbed off dieing/dead algae and rinsed in a bucket of fresh saltwater - let it sit for a couple more weeks - placed a few cleaner pieces in the display - waited - scrubbed - dipped - no more algae. All zoo's, shrooms, and coraline algae survived. The display runs rather nutrient low and my clean up crew consists of one astrea, two turbo snails, a few various small hermit crabs, and lots and lots of pods (no fish). I have so little algae in my display that I have to feed my snails or they'll starve to death.

 

[ConsultantERP]

Quote: "I have so little algae in my display that I have to feed my snails or they'll starve to death."

So, you do still have hair algae???? (Not a comment about "Cooking", a real question)