Cooking Live Rock - Exact Process?

[arconom]

DEC 11.04 Rock Cooking First Step
DEC 15.04 Follow up
DEC 26.04 Follow up
JAN 02.05 Follow up
JAN 09.05 Follow up



This is my schedule I have been doing. I do the follow ups on Sundays.

The question I see people asking is "how long does it take"?

Well I can tell you that I have been doing this for awhile as you can see. I am still not even close to being done. I'm still getting sand on the bottoms of the containers.

Also there is still valonia and red turf algea to some degree on my rocks. I can also say I still see aiptasia. So I know I'm looking at late February, early March. I see no letting up ATM at seeing less destritus. I still am amazed at how much stuff keeps coming out.

 

[Ken Sellick]

Thanks for sharing this valuable info. There is so much to learn about in this hobby / obsession

 

[SeanT]

Erik,
Looking good.
Remember to swish-swish-dunk-dunk-dunk-swishie-swish. LOL
Dunking really helps to loosen it in the pores for the swishing to remove.
Sean

 

[banzai75x]

Question: If I cook all my rocks that are in my display tank, I will still have corals and fish in there. Since there is no biological filtration (since rocks are cooking), won't my display tank water go to crap?

 

[SeanT]

The bacteria are still in there providing biological filtration.
Your skimmer is still working as well, run it wet.

More frequent, smaller water changes help as well.

 

[mps9506]

Question: If I cook all my rocks that are in my display tank, I will still have corals and fish in there. Since there is no biological filtration (since rocks are cooking), won't my display tank water go to crap?

I'll testify that a tank can actually look a lot healthier and cleaner with no live rock, heavy duty wet running skimmer and water changes, than it did with a bunch of nutrient laden live rock in it...

Just remember to keep up with the tank maintence, pretty much the same as you would do with a bare bottom tank. Make sure you don't have stuff rotting away in it.

 

[arconom]

Well here is my schedule as of today. I have a few questions for Bomber and Sean

DEC 11.04 Rock Cooking First Step
DEC 15.04 Follow up
DEC 26.04 Follow up
JAN 02.05 Follow up
JAN 09.05 Follow up
JAN 17.05 Follow up
Jan 27.05 Follow up

The amount of little sponges is incredible.

I still have valonia on some of the Rock,also I have some of that Red algea still left on some as well. Is the surface Algea the last to go during this whole process??

I also have some zoomat polyps still on a rock should I file them off next time? I really don't want them on my rock. Also I still have aiptasia it does seem to be getting less and less.

 

[SeanT]

Erik,
Pull the valonia off with tweasers.
It hastens their demise.
In fact, any algae you pnysically remove and take out of the equation is less time/work that needs to be done.

I did have a few marbled mushrooms survive on a single piece of rock.
Amazing really.
If you want to eradicate the polyps take 'em off for sure.
Sean

 

[Big E]

I amazed at the amount of detritus in those pics......unreal! I've been cooking my rock since October. I slowly took out the rocks that were infested the worst with hair algae. I have maybe 5-6 pieces that I haven't taken out & the algae on them has disappered.

I never get more than a couple piles of detritus here or there in my cooking bin & was a bit lax on the water changes the first month.

Anways, my tank looks better now than it has in over a year. Really amazing the difference plus a handful of my corals have colored up nicely. I would say in another month or so this tank will be pristine.

Thanks Sean for all your posts & directions.

 

[Cosmo^Kramer]

Sean my nano thanks you and so do i
I started my nano a little differently,i used 1 nice clean rock from my sump and the rest base rock.I cooked all the rock about 11 pounds.I was shocked to see the crud that came off the base rock.I put about 4 pounds in the tank so far,the rest is still cooking.So far so good with the nano,not a speck of alge and i've only cleaned the glass once in the past 2 weeks.My 65 is next,thats gonna be a big job.I have no hair alge but i have macro and can't seem to get it under control.If it wern't for you and Bomber i'd be lost..Thanks man

 

[astronaut]

Aren't all rocks a few million years old and getting the crude out and opening up the pores (so to speak) would really help.

umm, isnt that only if your rock is taken off the reef? walt smith and TBS dumped rock in the ocean and let it become live didn't they? im almost positive they dont take their rock right off of natural reefs.

 

[dkh0331]

It will be fine.
If you would like add another PH but a skimmer is completely unneeded.

I will start cooking my rocks next week.

If I have an spare skimmer, does it hurt the process or just not add any value at all?

David

 

[MiddletonMark]

David - IMO, a skimmer would not hurt the process - probably just help it. Or so my take is.

 

[dkh0331]

Thanks Mark. My initial tought is that it would help the process somewhat, but wanted to make sure that it didn't hurt the process.

David

 

[NwG]

I use my new asm g6 in my cooking setup.. I set up my basement sump and have yet to hook it into my display.. So I have a great big skimmer doing nothing.. Now that I am cookin rock why not use the skimmer? This gives me a chance to fine tune the skimmer and IMO quickened up the cooking process... I get 4g of dark skimate a day out of a 160g cooking system.. Haveing the skimmer in there lets me swish and dunk the rocks, in the tank every day..(and sometimes 2 or 3 times a daY) I still do the normal process that sean T says to do, just added swishing with the skimmers help... I have some pics of my set-up here http://www.w-a-w.net/gallery/Reef-shots/

 

[stan zemanek]

cookin rock?

cookin rock?

i'm corn fused! i have a 250 with aprrox 300 pounds of live rock, over the past month i have developed a type of clear slime algae on the rock. if i take say a third of the rock out and cook it for a few months, when i put rock back in tank with orginal rock would'nt the slime algae just leach back onto cooked rock i would think i would have to take all the rock out at once:

 

[arconom]

Do it in 1/2s 150# and 150#. Or all at once. This way you won't run into this problem.

Even then it won't be a problem. But I think you should do it all at once and be done with it. It will be more work in the long run to do it in 1/2s.

Your looking at a GUESS of 2-3 months more if need be. If you do it in 1/2s your looking at 2-3 months 2 times for a total of 6 months of your tank not looking good.

Here is my actual schedule as of this week.

DEC 11.04 Rock Cooking First Step
DEC 15.04 Follow up
DEC 26.04 Follow up
JAN 02.05 Follow up
JAN 09.05 Follow up
JAN 17.05 Follow up
Jan 27.05 Follow up
Feb 19.05 Follow up

I have a feeling it will be late March when I'm done. How do I know this? Well I am still getting tons of destritus coming off my rocks. I have to say reading all of Bomber's threads and getting the chance to speak with SeanT on the phone helped alot!!

If you have questions and would like to call me send me a PM and you can call me. I am not a "Leading Authority" per say but I sure can help you

 

[reefkeeper59]

Here's one for ya. I actually do cook my rock. I have 500 lbs of live rock and could care less about new rock having life on it. If I find a good buy on LR ($2.50 lb, I buy wholesale in florida), I will bring it home and stick it in the microwave for about 5 minutes. this kills any populations of bad worms, crabs, shrimp or any other critter I don't want. I then soak in saltwater for couple weeks shaking debree off. Then I put it in the tank, 10/20 lbs at a time over several weeks. Not sure what it does for algea. But I don't have any.

It seems to have some coraline algea that bounces back in a couple months.

 

[NwG]

Reefkeeper why not just seed some base rock? I think it would be cheaper in the long run...

 

[reefkeeper59]

Seems most of the LFS stores want $3 lb for that. May as well get a chance at some coraline for same price. The wholesaller I buy from doesn't sell base rock. Otherwise I probably would.