Do I need to cook Marco Rocks?

T

tonyespinoza

Premium Member
I'm planning a system where live rock from my existing system will go into a cryptic zone and I was planning to use fresh marco rocks in my all SPS display.

Question is: any reason to cook the Marco Rocks? i read someone complaining that they wish they had for fear of phosphates... but i'm not sure i follow this line of reasoning. would Marco Rocks even shed during the cooking period?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

-tE
 
What is bleach going to do? I can't imagine bleach doing much except for making you add a lot of declorinator later. So if I pour bleach on a dead body will it not still decompose at some point?

These rocks are filled with dead bodies they are dried and somewhat mummified. When you add water and bacteria the decomp process will proceed at a much faster pace. Please explain the logic behind bleaching?

The bleach would have to remain in the rock to kill the bacteria that decompose the dead stuff once water is added. The bleach would have to be removed at some point and then the dead stuff will begin to decompose. Bleach and reefs are not so good together.

Power wash them (it removes a lot of the dead stuff, but not all, and then make sure you change a lot of water. They cycle hard. You can use a car wash or your own. If you use a car wash make sure you run it for little while so there is no soap left in the hose.



Lisa
 
Lisa (sunfish11) and I had this same conversation about the rock. On advice from another reefer, we took my 80 pounds of Cherry Picks to the car wash in Rubbermaid tubs and blasted it with the straight water. As she said, plenty came out of the rock. It's now in a Brute trash can in the garage with 35 gallons of saltwater (15G from a waterchange and 20 fresh) with 2 Maxi-jet 1200's for flow and a Rena canister filter. I'm also going to be adding liquid Pond Phosphate remover in large quantities to help with that issue.

Also, be ready to get soaked yourself if you go to the carwash!
 
I would not bleach them, just a 1-2 month curing and a good brushing.

The power cleaning idea is good too
 
The bleach is just a much easier solution. Bleach breaks down the organic matter (that's what bleach does) left on the rocks so it can be rinsed off. Soak them for a couple days, pour off the nasty water and repeat.

Then rinse/soak them in plain tap water for a day and set the rocks out to dry. I use regular unscented bleach all the time to clean and sterilize tank stuff. The chlorine evaporates naturally...

"cooking" would work ok if you have the time, just takes too long IMO.
 
Well, I am no expert on bleach either way. Do it the way you feel comfortable. It just doesn't make a lot of sense to me, even after doing some reasearch on it.
 
i've heard of folks beaching their filter socks... so i guess it's not uncommon. does feel weird -- but it also makes sense to me that the chlorine doesn't have anything to bond to permanently in the rocks...
 
Bleach is an oxidizer and will oxidize anything in the rock. If bleach is used you need to soak the rocks for a few days in the bleach and then rinse well and soak them in chlorine remover for a while.

Some people also soak them in a vinegar solution because it will dissolve the outer part of the rock where supposedly phosphate are bound.


Marco rock is dead rock and what lived in the rock is dead inside it... People do these things to speed up the process of cycling.


I have a full tank done with marco rocks and love them... I would do another tank the same way.


Dave
 
I am still not conviced that bleach can remove/disolve/oxidize these dead animals and dried algea. although I think they should be nice and white. So, I went and found 3 dried up asterina stars, some dried seawead, and a dried sponge, and I am putting them in 1/2 water half bleach in a small cup to find out if it does anything obvious to them. Just curious...

Lisa
 
Last edited:
OK, as much as I hate to admit that I am wrong...I will do so now. In a half bleach, half water solution the asterina stars were completely disolved within a 1/2 hour. The dried algea was almost gone at this point and fell apart when moved. It was completely clear. I couldn't find the piece of sponge I had to add it to the experiment.

It does dissolve dead bodies after all...

Lisa
 
The next question I have is what is the ratio of bleach to water needed to disolve the organic matter? 50/50 is a very strong solution. I have now added some dried seaweed and dry asterina stars to a 1 part bleach to 30 parts water solution to see if that would be effective. The ratio would be like adding 1 gallon of bleach to 30 gallons of water. My hypothesis is that this won't be enough bleach and that the bleach will have evaporated before it can disolve the organics or be of any use. I will update the thread with results. If this is going to be a practice with dead rock then we may as well know how much bleach we need to use in order to have an impact.

Lisa
 
i got 150 lbs of marco rock for a new tank. I put all the rock in an empty 55, 4 gallons of vinegar and filled with fresh water. I let it sit for 3 days, then scrubbed the rub, and rinsed well with fresh water. I had a weak cycle for about 2-3 weeks in my tank- minor diatoms. I had the refug set up with about 15lbs established LR and some live sand.
 
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