Cooking Live Rock - Exact Process?

This is an interesting topic. Does anyone have any information on a long-term experiment using this method? I guess I'm looking to see if the algae returned after the 'cooked' rock was back in the tank for 4-5 months.
 
SeanT said:
Nathan, I completely understand where you are coming from.
I have followed several different ways myself.

However, I feel that cooking rock, especially rock that has been in our systems for awhile, isn't a fad or better yet, isn't a method of reekeeping.

Think of it along the same lines as doing water changes.
We all know that water changing is not mandatory with any regularity.
But few will argue the case that it doesn't help and I don't know of any who will try to argue it is bad (there may be some who will :twitch: , I just don't know them).
Regardless of the 'system' one employs, water changes are a good thing.

Now think of algae. None of us want it. Cooking rock gets rid of the organics (Phosphorous) deep in the rocks which starrves off the algae.


I have been cooking my rock since August.
It is all going back in my tank soon.
I took PUH-LENTY of before pictures.

I will post them all here. :)
Click to expand...

I look forward to seeing the before and after pictures.
 
npaden said:
I prefer my rock in my tank with corals growing on it.
Click to expand...
As do I. Just corals though, no hair algae.

eastcoaster1 said:
Does anyone have any information on a long-term experiment using this method?
I guess I'm looking to see if the algae returned after the 'cooked' rock was back in the tank for 4-5 months.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't really call it an experiment.
But if you ask Bomber, he cooked his rocks, and I ma sure he will volunteer his insights on how well it worked.

As for me, the rock entered my cooking tubs, COVERED, with hair algae.
I began to pull it off but got frustrated with there being so much, so I decided to heck with it and was going to let it cook extra time if necessary.

There is not a single visible strand of algae left on any of the rocks, except for some minor coraline.

The putrid, rotting,...crap that came out of these rocks was phenomenal.
I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't have to do the water changes personally.

It didn't smell like skim mate.
It smelled like rotting fish.
 
eastcoaster1 said:
This is an interesting topic. Does anyone have any information on a long-term experiment using this method? I guess I'm looking to see if the algae returned after the 'cooked' rock was back in the tank for 4-5 months.
Click to expand...

I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark...and of course this is all hypothetical, and depends on what you mean by long term.

If someone has algae, let's narrow it down to hair algae, regrowing on the cooked rock, I see two, possibly three, reasons for this happening.

1. An obvious reason would be that the person hasn't kept up on cleaining the tank or does not have a good way to remove detritus from the system. Algae grows where the "dirt" is. There may be inadequate flow which is allowing detritus to settle on to the rock and it's not being blown off periodicly with a power head or turkey baster.

2. It's possible that the cooking process was flawed. The rock might have been exposed to more light than it should have wich means it did not become bacterial driven and still had some algae growing on it. On the other hand, the person cooking the rock, my have rushed things and didn't let it cook as long as it should have.

3. It may be possible that the rock is land based and mined out of a limestone quarry. Land based rock seems to have much more phosphates in it than rocks that have been sitting in the ocean for a few hundred years. This doesn't seem as likely, but unless the person knows exactly where the rock was harvested from, it is possible. I can go into my LFS and see that someone has broken their tank down and the LFS is reselling the LR, but I don't know if the previous owner bought some base rock that was mined out of a limestone quarry and seeded it with LR, so it's a small possibility.

I couldn't say that any one of these situations would be the actual reason, it could be a combination of any or all since each tank is unique.

For land based rock, I don't know what the cooking duration would be or if it would even work. We'd probably have to ask Bomber. I do know that if you do a search for Bomber, you can see pictures of his tank using cooked rock, and the pictures span over the last year. He's been posting lots of new pics lately and everything is still looking great.

Kevin
 
SeanT said:
I wouldn't really call it an experiment.
But if you ask Bomber, he cooked his rocks, and I ma sure he will volunteer his insights on how well it worked.

As for me, the rock entered my cooking tubs, COVERED, with hair algae.
I began to pull it off but got frustrated with there being so much, so I decided to heck with it and was going to let it cook extra time if necessary.

There is not a single visible strand of algae left on any of the rocks, except for some minor coraline.

The putrid, rotting,...crap that came out of these rocks was phenomenal.
I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't have to do the water changes personally.

It didn't smell like skim mate.
It smelled like rotting fish.
Click to expand...

I had done this process along time ago in the back of the store I ran for the rock in our show tank . The water movement in the tank was almost 8 fps , so we wanted as bare a rock as we could get. New live rock was NOT the option in this case.. So we took one of our old fish holding systems (225 gallons ) and loaded it full of rock and saltwater ( First batch was actually from out system water change) I new I was shaking out detritus so I didnt mind using the other water change water.. let this run and circulate 2 weeks.The a water change,,, repeat,, etc,,, The only thing I see that I was doing different was I was dosing a gallon of kalkwasser every 3 days to help percipitate the phosphates.. which went away very fast. .. When this process was done 2 months of tank design/ plumbing tweaks we has some Nice clean rock that after was in the tank was phenomenal... very porous and pods everywhere.....Any type of Encrusting SPS Coral went NUTS leaning on this rock..... Patients was the killer though... staring and a big tank and wanting to fill er up.....

Nathan
 
Just thought I would share my experience so far with cooking my rock. I'm not following the "recipe" but using the same concept. I got my barebottom tank all set up. This tank is set up for sps so it has a very high turnover rate with a lot of randomized water movement. I am using my tank as the environment to cook my rock. My aquascaping is all on top of an eggcrate structure that keeps the rocks elevated 3" off the bottom. There are several spray bars under the eggcrate structure that fed at random intervals by a 6000 gph pump that keeps all detritus from staying on the bottom. It is all blown into the water column where it is removed by the LARGE skimmer or accumulates in the sump to be siphoned out.

I added about 230 lbs of fresh uncured live rock and around 40 lbs of live rock from my existing tank. I used a large powerhead every other day to blow off any detritus that would accumulate on the rocks. I siphoned the sump every week. The detritus production finally started slowing at about 4 weeks. It has now been 7 weeks and it is coming to a halt.

I think that "new" rock needs to be cooked just like any other rock. The "new" rock that was in my tank was spitting out large amounts of detritus for the first month and still continued to do so after that.

Just wanted to share my experience so that everyone doesn't think they HAVE to follow the recipe of swish, then move to fresh water, then swish, then move to fresh water, etc. Heck, if we are setting our systems up right the first time with big skimmers, high turnover rates, and proper means to keep detritus from accumulating in the tank, then we might as well let our systems "help" us cook our rock. However, for those who are cooking their rock from an existing setup and have to house their livestock in their display then the "recipe" would probably be the best way to go.
 
I've always been the one to try something new...

I have 2 tanks (reef and FO) running on a common sump and a common refuge. I'll be upgrading the reef to a larger size soon and would like to try this theory. Currently I'd describe my DSB reef as green and dirty, but with very good growth!

What do you guys think of two tanks on a common sump and refuge; one BB (reef) and a DSB (FO)? Of course if I did it, I'd cook the rock when I move it over. :)

If I understand the cooking and BB tank concept correctly this should be OK, right?
 
Having a DSB in the same system defeats the entire purpose behind a BB system. In a BB system you are removing detritus before it accumulates and starts breaking down. In a DSB system you are accumulating detritus and letting it break down in the sand bed. All of the detritus from your BB tank will collect in your DSB tank and break down in the sandbed leading to elevated pollutant levels in your tank.
 
I thought the BB was designed to remove the "poop" and let it settle out or be skimmed out in the refuge? Are you saying the detritus will remain in the water column and be carried over to the other tank via the refugium?

I'd like to not disturb the already established FO that has a DSB.
 
Yes, the detritus will settle out in low flow areas such as the sump, refugium, and FO tank with the DSB. The detritus will need to be cleaned from the system on a regular basis. In the FO tank you are also dealing with the wastes being produced in that tank that sill be accumulating in the DSB. From my past experience with DSB's and what I know about them is that you don't want to disturb them. By siphoning the detritus in your FO tank you will be disturbing the DSB. Actually, if you siphoned the detritus from the DSB then you will prevent the DSB from functioning properly. All in all, the detritus will be accumulating in your DSB and polluting the tank. If you really want to keep a DSB in your FO tank and a BB in your reef then I would set them up as two different systems.
 
Since the systems are linked, when the detritus breaks down it will release everything back into both systems.

I see it like this...

You have one tank that is extremely efficient in removing detritus and keeping nutrients like phosphates from being released.

You have another tank, that is very efficient at storing nutrients like phosphates, but when it fills up can release them into the system.

You may not see any or as much detritus in the BB system, but if the system with the DSB is releasing nutrients, it's releasing it into both systems. When you link the two systems together you end up with one system with two separate observing areas, one with sand, the other without, but it's still the same system. Sure, it's split up with different ammounts of flow and filtration, but it still ends up being a unified system.
 
might wanna seperate the sump somehow and keep these tanks seperate. That would be my thinking on this . You have two different Biotope Ideas with a common body of water so they are actually sharing all the same values. So what im saying is the same that KW and travis are saying as well. I just worded mine different.... :)
 
Right...the salinity is going to be the same in both systems, so one could safely assume that the nutrient levels will be the same in both systems...only one has sand in it and the other one doesn't.
 
Questions about cooking live rock

Questions about cooking live rock

Hi all,

Very interesting reading, I have learned volumes from you in mere minutes. I had vaguely heard of this procedure recently and am very interested in trying it. Thanks for the great directions on how to do this procedure.

I have a few questions: 1.) I recently bought new rock from a buddy getting out of the hobby (I know...what is he thinking?) and am planning on cooking this new rock with my current rock as I am planning on adding all this rock to a larger tank when it is ready, will it be okay to cook the 2 different batches of rock together?
2.) Has any body noticed any loss of the pesky aiptasia after cooking their rock? I have heard (but not yet found it on this site) that by cooking live rock you will get rid of hitchhikers, just wondering, is this true?

3.) Does any body have any suggestions on how to quarantine live sand? as I also just bought al large amt of live sand from the same buddy and am planning on adding it to my current sand to ensure I will still have a DSB in my new, larger tank.

Thanks again for all the help I have already gained from this discussion, any other help would be GREATLY appreciated

Thanks,
Wendi
 
1. It would be fine to cook it all together.
2. I am not positive. I have Peppermint shrimp and they obliterated the aiptasia. However, due to lack of light and nutrients I would imagine it should be effective.
3. Ditch the sand. If it is really mature you are going to add a lot of organic waste to your system.
If you are set on a DSB just use a cup or so of the top most layer of the established sand bed to "seed" a new sand bed.
If the sand has just been dumped in buckets and stored...trash it, imo.
 
1. It would be fine to cook it all together.
2. I am not positive. I have Peppermint shrimp and they obliterated the aiptasia. However, due to lack of light and nutrients I would imagine it should be effective.
3. Ditch the sand. If it is really mature you are going to add a lot of organic waste to your system.
If you are set on a DSB just use a cup or so of the top most layer of the established sand bed to "seed" a new sand bed.
If the sand has just been dumped in buckets and stored...trash it, imo.
 
Sean covered it.
But regarding the aiptasia I would nuke as many as I could first with some kalkwasser and syringe. This is relatively easy once the rock is out of the main tank and one the larger aiptasia.
I don't know for sure if the aiptasia would survive or not.
I do know the first time I cooked my live rock I didn't do it in total darkness and I still had plenty of aiptasia on the rocks after three months. (This was before Bomber had posted anything about cooking live rock on RC). Now I'm doing it all over again to try and rid myself of some macro algae that got into my tank as well, but I'm doing it right this time.
Mike
 
Seant T,

2 Questions re: cooking the live rock

1) When swishing the LR around in the 3 buckets, do you use fresh water or saltwater?

2) Do you add a heater to the holding tub while cooking the LR?

TIA
jussmeac
 
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