Cooking Live Rock - Exact Process?

I have a question... I've already started the cooking and I do wonder how much will actually come off. I have some serious algae on rocks that were in a tank that you couldn't even see into for I assume the majority of its ten year life span. Needless to say this algae is really on the rocks. I've noticed after drying the rocks out for 6 months that the algae can be scraped off with a finger nail so I gave it a decent scrubbing with a new bristle brush before I started cooking but I didn't get nearly all of it. Is it likely this stuff is going to come off or am I going to have to power wash it? Thanks!!
 
Hi phrawd,
Was the rock completely dry before you started cooking it?
If so, I would take a small piece of lr from your tank to get the bacteria going.
The rock will cycle and cook at the same time.
If it was from your tank then disregard that step.

As for the algae, when the rock is done cooking ALL of the hair algae will be gone.
Completely...so long as you cook it right.

Sean
 
I'll add a piece of rock to each tub today. I really should cook all of my rock before going BB but all of my corals are mounted and I'll just deal with the spew once I switch over. I will do a swish of the rocks after ripping out my substrate but I just don't have a place for all of my corals if I yanked all this rock out. Plus it is completely covered in corraline and looks awesome although still has a ton of nutrients I bet.
 
what about the sudden change in lighting by going down as much as 25" (150 gallon tank)? and you just stick the corals into 1-2" ID short pvc pipes? Don't most people epoxy their corals onto rocks? do you just rip them off once they are stuck? I always wonder how everyone keeps them from falling over, etc but can also move them around. Very useful thread and thanks for your replies!
 
IM002877.JPG

Kind of like this Sean :smokin:
 
Way to save the day NWG!! I take it you guys just setup those colonies on rock shelves and don't epoxy? Or you epoxy and rip them off? I've always been confused by this :-)
 
The ones that were glued on I used a chisel and took a small chenk of rock with it... or I just broke it off and the used a chisel to get small frags...
 
NwG said:
Kind of like this Sean :smokin: [/B][/QUOTE]
Zigactly!

phrawd,
I like to superglue/epoxy frags to small rocks and then epoxy the small rocks to larger ones.
That way if everything works out the corals stay put.
But, if you need to move them, a twist to the rock the coral is mounted to will pop it off of the larger rock.

hth,
Sean
Click to expand...
 
started the cooking process on half my lr about 3 weeks ago and started the remaining lr last week. this is quite a laborious task but what sand/dirt/detritus/whatever that comes out of 220lbs of lr during the swooshing is amazing! things i've learned along the way...

1. wear a back support :D
2. don't be in a hurry to get somewhere
3. use workgloves during the process
4. setup the process outdoors or in your garage vs. in the house :D
5. make sure you don't have an important sporting event that same day :(
6. accept the fact that you'll be making a ton of asw
7. the larger pieces of lr could use a few extra dunks/swooshes
8. explain to your spouse why you are doing this so they can repeat the story a million times to friends & family :p
 
It just occured to me that in NWG's photo there is a major decrease in the biological filtration because the rock is gone. How do you compensate for that? Especially if you have fish...
 
A good skimmer... from what I saw, the bacteria moves to the water... I overfed once and the tank got a little cloudy... This led me to belive that it moved to the water? anyone?
 
My rock is back in the tank, cooked for 15 weeks... has never looked better... lots of stuff survived...
 
None of the corals or anything were ill affected by the absence of rock? Did you convert to BB meaning you had sand or some kind of substrate that you tore out when you removed the rock for cooking? I bet aiptasia is going to survive this process!
 
Yes, I shop-vaced out 450lbs of sand, some of my corals lost some color but that is all pretty much back... And I had no aiptasia.. about a year ago I got 2 of the most aiptasia hungry peperment shrimp you have ever seen!!! Never seen one after that day.... But i would guess it would servive..
 
phrawd,
Do a little research man. ;)
There are two huge threads on this subject in this forum.
The one we are in and one started by me.
Nothing survives except bacteria, sponges, pods and an occassional polyp.
Certainly not aiptasia.
Your SPS corals actually look better than when you start, there is a lowering of PO4 in your tank when you cook your rock because you take the majority of PO4 out...the rock.
 
I wonder if a shop-vac will work on crushed coral? That would be awesome. Sorry to flood the thread... I do believe some aiptasia could survive as people have reported some corals surviving it. I'll stop replying now but I did read all of these threads.
 
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