Mr. Brooks
MASVC Member
Hey everyone, I had a rough time finding info on cooking rock and actually picked up some bad info in the process, The following is a convo I had with another RC member. Thought it might be of some use to others.
thechad21 wrote on 06/29/2008 03:13 AM:
Hey there, You posted a response to question about leaving live rock out in the sun. You mentioned cooking it. I just bought a bunch of live rock that has God knows what on it. I have it in two tubs with powerheads, skimmers, and heaters. I read that to "cook" rock, you turn the dial up on your heater as high as it'll go to kill off any parasites. Is this correct? And how important is it to cover the containers? Thank you so much for your help!
ReefWreak wrote on 06/29/2008 09:30 AM:
Noooo nononono.
Cooking live rock has nothing to do with heat. Cooking is simply just keeping light and food away from the rock for an extended period of time. Running the rock with powerheads, heaters (just to keep the temperature stable and normal, 78 maybe?), and a skimmer to keep everything alive while removing any organic waste that is shed.
You're also supposed to turn the rock every few weeks, and do water changes frequently as the rock keeps shedding off nutrients, and you don't want the rocks re-absorbing the nutrients.
Covering the tank isn't a big deal, if anything, leave them open. The only reason to cover them is to keep the sunlight out, which is very important! You don't want algae growing and absorbing all those nutrients, cause it'll take forever to get rid of the algae.
Where did you buy the liverock from? If from an LFS, and it looked pretty fresh, I wouldn't cook it. The only time to cook it is if you buy someone else's questionable rock.
I would not worry about parasites in the liverock. The reason to cook it is mostly just nutrient control. If you wanted to kill everything, you could dry the rock out after it's done cooking, but then the rock will be devoid of both bacteria (which cooking would/should leave in) AND of nutrients (which is what cooking removes).
I hope that helps, and if you've got any more questions, let me know, as I'm happy to help with what I can.
Cheers,
Eric
thechad21 wrote on 06/29/2008 01:17 PM:
Thank you so much for your reply! I did some more research after sending that PM. Realized the guy that posted that you should crank the heat up had no idea what he was talking about. So I ran over to my office last night (I had already cranked the heat up yesterday) and turned the heat down. Wow those heaters worked fast! hopefully I didn't do too much damage.
Well anyway, the rock came from an 8 year old tank. I'm definitly going to cook it (the right way) I might keep one or two pieces of the really nice coraline encrusted pieces under some light but the rest will be going through a full two months of no light for sure. I was so proud of myself to be getting such a deal.. $x.xx/lb. And then to read about old tank syndrome.. Oh well. Still worth it I guess. He showed me pics of when his tank was up and running, there was definitly some hair algae growing.
Thanks again for your help, I'm going to try and find that post I read and respond to it, maybe copy and paste this convo on a new thread? Try to help other newbies avoid the same dumb mistake I made.
Chad
Re: Cooking live rock
Yea man, please any help that my response can be. I was actually wishing it was in a thread, since then other people could read it, but no biggie.
On a side note, old tank syndrome is usually caused by someone's deep sand bed, or sand bed in general, becoming too full of nutrients. As long as you're not using his sand bed (or if you are, just make sure to thoroughly wash it out first with clean fresh water). Rock can be full of nutrients too, but that usually will grow algae on it or just make it look crappy, but it's still very good to cook rock, especially from an 8 year old tank.
Glad I could help,
Eric
thechad21 wrote on 06/29/2008 03:13 AM:
Hey there, You posted a response to question about leaving live rock out in the sun. You mentioned cooking it. I just bought a bunch of live rock that has God knows what on it. I have it in two tubs with powerheads, skimmers, and heaters. I read that to "cook" rock, you turn the dial up on your heater as high as it'll go to kill off any parasites. Is this correct? And how important is it to cover the containers? Thank you so much for your help!
ReefWreak wrote on 06/29/2008 09:30 AM:
Noooo nononono.
Cooking live rock has nothing to do with heat. Cooking is simply just keeping light and food away from the rock for an extended period of time. Running the rock with powerheads, heaters (just to keep the temperature stable and normal, 78 maybe?), and a skimmer to keep everything alive while removing any organic waste that is shed.
You're also supposed to turn the rock every few weeks, and do water changes frequently as the rock keeps shedding off nutrients, and you don't want the rocks re-absorbing the nutrients.
Covering the tank isn't a big deal, if anything, leave them open. The only reason to cover them is to keep the sunlight out, which is very important! You don't want algae growing and absorbing all those nutrients, cause it'll take forever to get rid of the algae.
Where did you buy the liverock from? If from an LFS, and it looked pretty fresh, I wouldn't cook it. The only time to cook it is if you buy someone else's questionable rock.
I would not worry about parasites in the liverock. The reason to cook it is mostly just nutrient control. If you wanted to kill everything, you could dry the rock out after it's done cooking, but then the rock will be devoid of both bacteria (which cooking would/should leave in) AND of nutrients (which is what cooking removes).
I hope that helps, and if you've got any more questions, let me know, as I'm happy to help with what I can.
Cheers,
Eric
thechad21 wrote on 06/29/2008 01:17 PM:
Thank you so much for your reply! I did some more research after sending that PM. Realized the guy that posted that you should crank the heat up had no idea what he was talking about. So I ran over to my office last night (I had already cranked the heat up yesterday) and turned the heat down. Wow those heaters worked fast! hopefully I didn't do too much damage.
Well anyway, the rock came from an 8 year old tank. I'm definitly going to cook it (the right way) I might keep one or two pieces of the really nice coraline encrusted pieces under some light but the rest will be going through a full two months of no light for sure. I was so proud of myself to be getting such a deal.. $x.xx/lb. And then to read about old tank syndrome.. Oh well. Still worth it I guess. He showed me pics of when his tank was up and running, there was definitly some hair algae growing.
Thanks again for your help, I'm going to try and find that post I read and respond to it, maybe copy and paste this convo on a new thread? Try to help other newbies avoid the same dumb mistake I made.
Chad
Re: Cooking live rock
Yea man, please any help that my response can be. I was actually wishing it was in a thread, since then other people could read it, but no biggie.
On a side note, old tank syndrome is usually caused by someone's deep sand bed, or sand bed in general, becoming too full of nutrients. As long as you're not using his sand bed (or if you are, just make sure to thoroughly wash it out first with clean fresh water). Rock can be full of nutrients too, but that usually will grow algae on it or just make it look crappy, but it's still very good to cook rock, especially from an 8 year old tank.
Glad I could help,
Eric
