thanks weatherman.
I'm thinking about trying both methods. I've got plenty of rock that doesn't have corals on them as well. I'm going to set up two systems. One will be the proper way with no light, while the other will be via one 65w PC on my 10gal nano.
Here's a quick thought of the setup.
10gal tank with 4 med-large rocks with some corals and algae covering them. 65w pc bulb. 1-maxijet 1200 and 1 maxi 400 equiv. bare bottom. lights on 12hrs day with rear refugium containing additional 1.5 gal and chaeto for more export.
50 gal tub with 20gal water with 4 similar sized rocks, no corals with no light. 1 aquaclear 802ph and 1 maxijet 1200. bare bottom.
water in both systems will receive a 50% water change with RO asw prior to running experiment so water quality should be similar.
below is the method for cooking rocks taken from SeanT's earlier post:
1. Get into your head and accept the fact you will be making lots of salt water if you aren't lucky enough to have access to filtered NSW.
2. Explain to significant other what is going on so they don't flip out. This process can take up to 2 months. Prepare them in advance so he/she can mark it on the calendar and that they won't nag about it until that date arrives.
3. Setup a tub(s) where the rock is to be cooked. Garages are great for this.
4. Make up enough water to fill tub(s) about halfway and around 5-7 buckets about 60% full.
5. Remove all the rock you want to cook at this stage. (The rock can be removed piece by piece until you are done.) I suggest shutting off the circulation beforehand to minimize dust storms.
6. Take the first piece of rock and dunk it, swish it, very, very well in the first bucket. Then do it again in the 2nd bucket, then the third.
7. Place rock in the tub.
8. Repeat steps 6 & 7 to every piece of rock you want to cook at this time. The reason I suggested 5-7 buckets of water will be evident quickly...as the water quickly turnsq brown.
9. Place powerhead(s) in the tub and plug in. Position at least one powerhead so that it agitates the surface of the water pretty well. This is to keep the water oxygenated. You can use an air pump for additional oxygenation if you wish.
9. Cover the tub. Remember, we want total darkness.
10. Empty out buckets, restart circulation on main tank.
11. Wait.
12. During the first couple of weeks it is recommended to do a swishing and dunking of the rocks twice a week.
What this entails is to make up enough water to fill up those buckets and the tub the rock is in.
First, lay out your empty tub(s) and fill buckets the same as before.
Then, uncover tub with the rock in it. Take a rock and swish it in the tub it's in to knock any easy to get off junk.
Then, swish it thru the 3 buckets again, and place in the empty tub..
Repeat for all your rocks.
Then empty the tub that all the rocks were cooking in, take it outside and rinse it out with a hose.
Place tub back where it was, fill with new saltwater, add rocks and powerheads, and cover.
Wait again unti the next water change.
You will be utterly amazed at how much sand, silt, detrius is at the bottom of the tub and every bucket. It is amazing.
My only question at this point is how much of a shock will my mushrooms,zoos receive by being placed in a 100% water changed system? I'm wondering if I only replace half, or 2/3 if that would be enough, assuming I remove all the gunk on the bottom of the tub/tank each time.
The only other thing is when I create my 3 buckets of rinsing water, I will clean one systems rocks in sequence, and then the others and vice versa during the next cleaning to try and maintain some equality between the two. The only thing I can figure is this may create a lag on the results of 3-4 days since the second system will receive a rinse in dirtier water than the first during that first rinse.
Aside from this I will be removing any algae that grows in the 10gal nano during this process.
Any thoughts? Sorry for the long post.....
vince
