Is this LR doomed?

[JmLee]

i battled a bad diatom prob and destroyed it in 3 weeks! all you need to do is cut ur lighting regimen a few hours for example if you run your lights 8 hours a day then cut it down to 5 - 6 hours. Do plenty of water changes i was doing 10 - 15 gallon changes every 3 - 4 days. Running phosgard or phosban is always a help. And reducing feeding. Also i bought like three large Turbo snails and they helped alot. If you do this i bet you, you will see a big difference. Keep in mind it may take longer then 3 weeks for you because you have such a large bloom. BTW i run two 250 what halides for 8 hours a day and not one bloom in those 8 hours.

 

[Alaskan Reefer]

Before you go into trying to get coralline growth, you need to get the nutrients out. You could cook the rock, or just do a lot of powerhead directed cleaning along with water changes. Either way I'd dump and replace the old sand, no doubt about that. With clean water around them, the rocks will leach out nutrients and eventually be relatively "clean," albeit not "cooked," with the benefit of not killing the life within them. Once the nutrient levels are under control, but a piece or two of coralline encrusted rock, and it should work great.

 

[andycook]

My experience is when I setup my 180g tank using sand from my 75g tank + new sand (50/50 for about 300+ lbs) I had zero coraline growth for about 18 months. Once I pulled the sandbed and used the same rock/lights/flow/etc I had coraline growth. Taking out the sandbed and the growth of coraline within three weeks seems to be connected.

My advice to you is to switch out the sandbed. Doing so will be a messy large amount of work but it will be worth it. At least the gunk in the sandbed will be your gunk and not unknown gunk.

If replacing the sandbed alone doesn't give you the results you want then do some research and figure out the next steps which could be cooking your rock or barebottom tank or both or neither.

 

[kbmdale]

I can't believe you beat up a blind kid...lol...

Giants:

Your diatoms will go away. I wouldn't do anything drastic at this point. There is ZERO need to cook your rock. If your worried about the coraline or wanna boost it go to the chemestry forum and in the sticky threads are lots of links to limewater. That will do more for your coraline than anything else.

Peace.

 

[finneganswake]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6697020#post6697020 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kbmdale
I can't believe you beat up a blind kid...lol...

Yeah, not one of my prouder moments... In my defense, however, they did insist that we solve the argument by boxing. Maybe they were trying to compensate

 

[kbmdale]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6696549#post6696549 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SeanT
By responding to the earlier comment you have proved my point.

The facts are "cooking" live rocks works and you are wrong. :wavehand:

Whats your definition of works.

Advil works on a headache, but won't do much for vomitting..

While cooking your rock may be benificial for some situtations, I really don't see how it will promote coraline growth at all. See in my mind if your thinking of cooking your rock you got serious issues and have exhausted all other possable solutions and need to start over. I see this suggested to people who have DIATOM BLOOMS... Thats just wrong... I'm not ripping on anybody but there seems to be a cult following around here on certian subjects which may easily lead alot of NEWBIE reefers down a discouraging road.....

OFF THE PODIUM.

 

[Fliger]

Why does everyone get so worked up about this? Personally I don't know that I believe in the "theory" of cooking, but I've been doing it to some MI and Buna Branch I picked up a few months ago and its quite incredible. I test for po4 with a D/Merck kit every few days and its amazing to see the po4 slowly diminish. I started with the high range Salifert kit, now I need a low range kit. Also the crap on the bottom of the bin gets less and less every time. The rock get shinier and shinier.

Again, I don't know that I believe in the "layer" theory, but the constant shaking and water changes will get your rock to the point where its so damn clean its amazing. Take a look at cidory's, weatherman's (or is it weatherson) and many others who have tried this, then do it yourself with a few pieces out of your tank. You WILL want to do the rest of your rock.

(and now i'm unsubscribing )

 

[kbmdale]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6697053#post6697053 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by finneganswake
Yeah, not one of my prouder moments... In my defense, however, they did insist that we solve the argument by boxing. Maybe they were trying to compensate

Back in high school, WAY BACK lol, I helped the special ed gym class teacher. Anyway, this one SPECIAL kid attacked me, I let him beat me up cause I don't think I could have ever lived down beating up a SPECIAL ED student...Turns out I should have punched his lights out cause I was known as the guy that got beat up by the RETARD...so you see it may have been worse to have had him kick your butt...

 

[moose8721]

Suck that old sand out with your upcoming large water changes. That should solve the sand problem and help the algae problem. Add some of your rock to seed the coraline growth and be patient.

 

[finneganswake]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6697166#post6697166 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Fliger
Why does everyone get so worked up about this? Personally I don't know that I believe in the "theory" of cooking, but I've been doing it to some MI and Buna Branch I picked up a few months ago and its quite incredible. I test for po4 with a D/Merck kit every few days and its amazing to see the po4 slowly diminish. I started with the high range Salifert kit, now I need a low range kit. Also the crap on the bottom of the bin gets less and less every time. The rock get shinier and shinier.

Why does this surprise you? You're taking a chunk of live rock and denying it any of the normal phosphate inputs that it would get (food, doodoo, etc.) along with doing frequent water changes. Of course the level of phosphates is going to decrease, just as it would if I removed all of the fish and other living things from my tank and did frequent water changes (well, I already do frequent water changes, but you get the point).

What I would suggest is that you put your rock back in the tank after you've cooked it and then yank it out after six months. You'll find that the water in your cooking bin tests just the same as it did when you started the first time. Long story short--you've spent months on getting stuff out that will just go right back in unless there is no life in your tank, and along the way you've killed off a lot of stuff on your live rock. You could have solved any algae issues with good old fashioned husbandry.

 

[kbmdale]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6697241#post6697241 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by moose8721
Suck that old sand out with your upcoming large water changes. That should solve the sand problem and help the algae problem. Add some of your rock to seed the coraline growth and be patient.

What sand PROBLEM? He said it was brown...DIATOMS ANYONE.. sounds like the tank is just going through its cycle to me. They will go away.

 

[Fliger]

Damn, I didn't unsubscribe in time.

Bottom line is I have cured live rock many, many times. This time I had the luxury of time since I'm waiting for a new tank. So I thought I'd try it. I have cured LR for this long before and the rock was not this clean.

I know husbandry very well. I have never had algae issues, ever. Why would "good old fashioned husbandry" not start with as clean LR as possible? I don't feel the need to start this tank with anything less than the best.

Anyway, its not applicable to everyone and I doubt I'd have the patience to pull all LR out of an existing tank and run it thru the process. I just had the luxury of time this go around.

Carry on with your mission to rid the world of cleaning their rock in an effective manner. More power to ya.

"unsubscribed" for good

 

[kbmdale]

Fliger,

In that situation I would have done the same. Its not an issue with doing it. The issue that has come about is that more and more this has become the answer to every problem. There is siyuations where cooking or recurring is the best answer, but to just tell everyone regardless of the problem to cook thier rocks is obsurd.

 

[fishman805]

:lol: It's like Frik and Frak..... Looks like the two of them follow each other around when it comes to this issue....

Cooking LR would be a good thing to do if you've got old nasty LR and you want to "start over" with it but a "good" cleaning will do just as well.... I've used the process myself "to a point" and by that I mean that I cured the LR in total darkness for about three weeks to kill off the algae that had taken it over the first time I had it in the tank.... But I believe what also helped was washing it off about every week and putting it in new fresh SW and then back into the darkness ( with a powerhead running in the vat )..... I set the tank up again and I never had any algae or a diatom bloom and it's still very clean and the coraline is growing back on it just fine.....

Phosphates ( I believe ) are something that "bleeds" out of the LR due to all the stuff that's gotten into the deep pores of the rock itself and I think that's why "cooking" seems to work .... But I will tell you something else.... If I've purchased cured "or" uncurred LR from ANY vendor, the last thing I would want to do is kill it by cooking it..... I personally like all of the life that comes on "live rock"... You can deal with phosphates by doing water changes and by running phosban or something similar in a reactor designed for that purpose.....

Diatom blooms are a fact of the cycle period ( for most of us ).... What I would suggest is to let the tank run... Keep what's in it ( but perhaps replace the sand with new ) and keep doing water changes .... Also, keep just your actinic lamps running, that will help promote coraline growth and reduce algae and cyano growth...

Bob

 

[moose8721]

He said the sand looked like it was caked full of old detritus from the prior owners tank. I think it's a good idea to periodically rotate/replace a portion of your sand anyway. Unless you're subscribing to deep sand bed philosophy,which I know nothing about.

 

[pcpm75]

If your are going to switch out your sandbed this weekend is it possible for you to take before and after pics so we can see the results of this change during the next few months? If it works well it would save alot of people from listening to these people bicker anymore. Plus I would like to know how this works out for you, it could save alot of people from cooking their rock win their is no need.... Just trying to make the bitter people laugh....:fun2:

 

[dirtyvegas]

Fliger, how exactly are you suggesting he clean the rock, by shaking it in clean water and doing water changes.?

dv

 

[Markk96]

Just a reminder to keep this thread going in a positive way.

 

[SeanT]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6696596#post6696596 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Highlander
Sean T,
Can you please post some pictures of your tank.
I find it surprising that such a strong advocate of rock cooking doesn't have a gallery full of evidence.
That should settle the argument once and for all.
Thx

Evidence?
I don't need to supply you with evidence or anything else for that matter.
If you want evidence, ask the dozens of reefers who have done it.
Oh wait, they testify to it daily but strangely that is not good enough for youor certain other individualys here?
So, with that in mind, no "evidence" will be enough.

Want pics of my tank?
Not much to see after the heating episode.
But here are some updated pics of my sump area.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=705474
Go to page 15 to see them.

 

[SeanT]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6696609#post6696609 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by finneganswake
Well, amputating your leg to get rid of athlete's foot "works" if that's how you want to look at it:lol:

The truth is that you're pushing your bare rocks agenda on anyone who will listen, which unfortunately is a lot of people since on a website, it's not the qualifications of the person that counts, it's the number of posts. I like to get information from someone who can keep a tank running for more than a few months at a time.

So, maybe 2% of the people you're pushing this on need it (and I'm being REALLY generous from my point of view on this number). The other 98% are damaging their tanks' ecosystems. I know you hate live rock (just look at all of the posts where you refer to it as "aquacluttered") but if you keep this up, eventually people are going to figure out it's just a bandaid and you'll become as irrelevant as Bomber and his "just ditch the sandbed and you'll never have any problems with your tank" nonsense.

Ahh more worthless ignorant, uninformed hyperbole.