Pandora:
Have to step back and think of the "why" in each case.
My point exactly..... Mantras are fine when they are appropriate for the situation at hand - other than that they are usually quite wrong. We are in agreement, I'm sure.
Kong:
For such a long-winded post ranting about how rock "cookers" are wrong, you sure come off as being wrong in guessing why it is suggested.
Where, exactly, did I say that rock cooking is wrong. It's a sensible, well thought out and logical solution to a problem. However, it isn't a solution to
this problem, period.
Pray tell.... Where did the vast amounts of phosphate and other undesirable nutrients suddenly appear from in a box of rock that has little water in it. Furthermore, please tell me how these vast amounts of undesirable have managed to leach themselves deep into the rock and lay themselves down with the distinct lack of water in the system.
There are _exactly_ the same amount of nutrients in the box as there were at the moment the box was closed. Yes, they may have "changed form" but it is in no way comparable to the way undesirables leach into and lay themselves down over periods of a year or several in a normal aquarium environment. Thus, cooking the rock is an inappropriate solution to this problem. In fact, whatever life is left - and it seems that you might be surprised how much can still be alive unless the rock has been frozen - will be further detrimentally affected by placing them in a dark box for 3 months.
Rock cooking theory deserves far more attention and merit regardless of whether you run a BB or a DSB
I'm sorry, but you are going to have to try a lot harder to derail this thread and move it into a squealing match about such a silly topic as that.....
Stingers:
I would suggest the following to maximize the survival of what remains alive on your rock and as stated above you might be very surprised.
Before arrival I would have two large tubs of saltwater ready. The parameters aren't that important at this point but it would be nice if it were at least room temp, (in the 70s), and the SG be above 1020 because we aren't going to have anything living here.
When the rock arrives get a peg and place it firmly on your nose. Take the boxes to the garage _before_ you open them - The stink of a dead bivalve, (clams etc.), - and they will most probably be dead if there were any on the rock - will linger in your living room a lot longer than your SO would like and it puts something of a strain on their acceptance of your new found hobby....
.
Pop the boxes one at a time and stand back as you open them. You'll know immediately how bad or good each box is. Take the rock out piece by piece and shake it vigorously for 30 seconds in the first tub. Upon completion take the rock out and, starting with the rock away from your face waft air across it towards your now unpegged nose. If it still smells foul you will need to use your nose to locate the source of the foul smell and then do whatever it takes to remove it. This can be quite difficult since many bivalves will be buried in the rock itself. If you can get them cracked or to open up then re-rinse the rock in tub one. Repeat this process until you simply can't make the piece of rock smell any better and place it into tub two. Repeat this with each piece of rock until complete.
Take the rock from tub 2 and scatter it about your aquarium in such a way as to allow maximum water flow around them - we aren't aquascaping here, we are trying to expose as much of the rock's surface as possible to water - you might even consider placing some form of makeshift rack on the sand so that the water can flow cleanly underneath it. Take every form of flow you have in the tank, (powerheads, returns, closed loops), and direct it as best you can to pass under the rock without causing the sand to shift. Keep the tank lights off but don't worry too much about ambient light unless it is direct sunlight.
Go back to your tubs. Empty them carefully until there is about 1" of water left in there and use a flashlight to carefully inspect the rubble etc. in the bottom. You may be lucky and find some life no matter how small. Catch it and move it to your tank. If you find crustaceans or starfish etc. that seem almost dead you might want to try keeping them in a separate container with fresh saltwater and appropriate heat and circulation to see if they revive. I wouldn't put them in the main tank since if they don't make it they will add to your problem. Additionally I will suggest something later that would harm them so a separate container would be very nice.
When all life is out of the tubs rinse them out and mix new saltwater to match the conditions of your main tank. I don't know what your daily schedule is but I would recommend testing for Ammonia every 8 hours and change the appropriate volume of water each time to maintain the level of ammonia as low as possible - preferably below 0.2ppm. So if you NH4 tests at 0.3 ppm then you would want to do a 50% water change bringing it down to 0.15ppm. The lower you can keep it the better. I'd like to see you keep it at or below 0.1ppm but that may be impractical.
Before others jump on me:- Yes, I am well aware that this will extend the cycle time - I'm not interested in the time, I'm interested in protecting the life remaining on his rock.
After a couple of days I would start testing for Nitrites as well as Ammonia and use the same water change regime to maintain the Nitrites below 0.6ppm - again, I'd rather see you keep them below 0.3ppm.
Keep the "juggling" act up as long as necessary doing the water as appropriate to minimize the concentrations of NH4 and NO2 until both remain at zero for 3 days then aquascape your tank and recheck NH4 and NO2 levels for a further three days. If, at any time during this process you have noticed a downward trend in the level of ammonia and it starts going back up again you need to do the smell test on every rock and remove any new dead matter that you missed earlier or has died subsequently - you'll be surprised how easy it is to miss an embedded bivalve and similarly surprised by how small a bivalve can foul your tank completely. If they remain at zero test for Nitrates and do an appropriate water change to bring the level down as close as possible to zero, certainly below 10ppm. This whole process may take 30 days or so but if you are lucky and cleaned as much of the dead stuff off the rocks it could be done in as little as 15 days. You can assist in expediting this process by turning the heater up so that the water exceeds 86 degrees since this is the low end of the optimum temperature for the metabolism of the bacteria you are trying to culture, 88 would be nice. NOTE: Do not do this in a stocked tank - you will kill your livestock.
There.... That should keep you busy for a few days...
If you have any other questions feel free to ask or PM me.
