Quick question about cooking liverock (dunking procedure)

[MikeBrke]

When you dunk the rock in the buckets to wash off all the junk, does it have to be saltwater? I was thinking of just using RO/DI water. I figured it wouldn't hurt it much since it will only be dunked for a minute. It would save me money because I wouldn't have to buy more salt mix!

Thanks

 

[kar93]

Yes use saltwater, low salinity to try and force out any unwanted pests.

 

[MikeBrke]

Will it "hurt" the live rock to use RO/DI water to dunk it in? If so, why?

 

[sirreal63]

It will slow down the "cooking" time. The idea is to let the bacteria eat the available nutrients coming from the rock and by dunking in freshwater you kill off some of the bacteria you need to do the cooking.

Salt is one of the cheapest things in this hobby, is affording salt an issue?

 

[Gwynhidwy]

Dipping live rock in fresh water, even for not very long, will likely cause a substantial die off of organisms living on the rock. Which kind of defeats the purpose of buying live rock as opposed to dry rock. It will also take longer to establish the bacterial colonies you want and take longer to cure (the time it takes for all the dead organisms to rot away). I'd splurge on the salt or return the live rock and by dry as its usually much less expensive.

 

[SeanT]

Saltwater for sure.

 

[pledosophy]

I never dunked mine, I just did water changes and had a ton of flow. You'll be amazed out how much jun comes out of the rock.

I wasn't worried about keeping critters, only bateria.

I also fed my rock with pure ammonia during the course of cooking.

JME