Rock cooking, it does work.

Of course itââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s a fad. Just like metal-halide lights, beckett skimmers, Tunze Streams, kalkwasser, calcium reactors and bare-bottom tanks.

One of these days we will all see the errors of our ways and go back to using crushed coral, under-gravel filters, lava rock, plastic plants and normal-output florescent lights, and wonder why we wasted all the time, money and effort on all that other stuff.

:D
 
What I meant by fad is once someone discovers something that works,, every jumps on the bandwagon until the next thing comes along.


How has many reefkeepers in the past 10-20 years cured their rock?

If you are saying that new rock is not the answer than what? Cook the LR for a year?

ou are blaming cooking rocks for your alge when thats nowhere near the reason why your tank bloomed.You are going to regret it.Mark my words.
Click to expand...

Well I had tons of algae, i removed the LR to cook it. algae in the tank and on the clam's shell disappeared in 2 weeks. Tank ran algae free for 2.5 months. I add the LR back in and algae a week later. There is NO feeding. RO/DI/DI is tested for 0 TDS, PO4, Silicates.

So if the glass doesn't feed algae, pumps dont feed algae, then what is feeding the algae? uuuuuhhh - SOMETHING IN THE ROCK.
 
Rob_Reef_Keeper
Click to expand...

Well I had tons of algae, i removed the LR to cook it. algae in the tank and on the clam's shell disappeared in 2 weeks. Tank ran algae free for 2.5 months. I add the LR back in and algae a week later. There is NO feeding. RO/DI/DI is tested for 0 TDS, PO4, Silicates.
Click to expand...

would you have any picutres?
 
"some"? Some could mean 4 or 40.

Perhaps more details of what's in the tank, exactly what you did while cooking, your maintence routines, you said no feeding (really nothing? no supplementing at all?), water changes, bulbs really old?, etc would help people advise you or at least let them form an opinion on tackling the algae.
 
How about a fish list ,what type of food and exactly how often ya feed them,Photo period(hours perday the lights ran)how much flow.Did ya add a coral that could have had some alge on it?How many emerald crabs do ya have?They are great for eating alge.Your the only one here that had an alge problem a week after coking rocks.Something aint jiving here:pDo ya run a refuge in your sump?...If ya feel energetic why dont you type out in exact detail everything about your tank before and after as well as a detailed description of your cooking procces like every little deatail.You had alge before and after you are doing the same thing wrong now as before.
 
Had a 1.5 year old 46G reef 4 years ago. Converted to a 58G with a 4in DSB that was never setup poperly. After a year of battling hair algae I yanked the DSB and went with starboard. 1.5 years later decided to "cook" the LR.

Cooking procedure I used:
all rocks in a rubbermaid tub scrubbed with the tank water before putting into tub. After about 2 weeks all the algae was gone off the LR. twice a week I swished, dunked the rock. Once a weekremoved all the rock ,water and detritus. Put the rock back in with 100% new SW heated adn sal 1.025. This went on for ~13 weeks. The rick dumped allot of detritus but slowed to almost nothing the last 2 weeks.

During this time I did 5G bi-weekly water changes in the tank.

Reconstruction Day
Empited the tank and siphoned out all that was in the tank.
Filled tank with the cooked LR and 100% new SW. After about 5 hours I acclimated my corals and returned them to the tank.

SKimmer Euroreef ES5-3. No refugium (no room for one not even a hang on).

Lights: 250W HQI 14K and 2 85W XHO acintics . Bulbs changed about 3 weeks ago before reconstructing the tank. Acintics 10 hours, MH 8 hours.

There is about 14 snails in the tank.

All top off is through a Precision Marine Kalk reactor that is fed 24/7 through a LitreMeter III. (just cleaned and reloaded before recontruction).

Now, ther was no algae for 13 week while the rock was cooking. I added all new SW mixed with RO/DI/DI at 0 TDS, PO4, Silicates and within 1 week the algae is there. What I am saying is that the LR I have must be either super loaded or something else leaching out of it.

Boat racer - there is NO fish so NO feeding.

I am not saying cooking does not work at all, I am saying it did NOT work for me. I am sure like other methods of reefkeeing, some work for some and not for others. Cooking LR is not the only way to have a successful reeftank. I took a shot at after seeing the results of other peoples rebuilds of cooking but it just didn't work for me. If the input of the SW is not the cause, the new lights not being the cause and Kalk not being the cause (supposed to help remove PO4) and the the rock cooking supposedly fixes all, then WHERE is the algae getting its fuel from? The only thing different between 2 weeks ago and now is the rock is in the tank. Maybe the rock needs to be reseeded to gets its life back? There hasn't been pods, worms and etc since the Southdown was in the tank.
 
Man I dont know what to say to that.It sounds like ya did the right things.It would have to be a super high phosphate level in the rocks you have.Here is an idea.Take some new salt water and a bucket and a heater and an airstone or powerhead and isolate a few peices of your rock in that bucket for two weeks.Check the Phosphates in that water after the two weeks are up.I would think that there is a super high Phos reading from that water.Correct me if I'm wrong but if so wouldnt it show on the Phos test at that point from the water with that rock init?Just a simple test to narrow things down a little.If thats the culperate then get new rock and throw that stuff away.Good luck.I am acsiuos to see what the Po4 reading would be if ya did this little experiment.:)
 
That's odd if you're not feeding. Have you tested for Nitrates in the water? For there to be nitrates, there has to be a source of nitrites, extend that to ammonia and that to either food source or something dying. Since you've only had the rock back in the tank for 2 weeks, I'd suggest waiting it out a few more weeks. Rock cooking isn't a fix all, it's a repair of sorts. It removes the built up NO3/PO4 that has accumulated for years in the rocks. Even when it's in the ocean. It won't prevent it from coming back if you can't find a way to export it. The algae is doing that right now. I'm just wondering where the nutrients are coming from if you aren't adding anything. So I'm confused and I'll let someone else chime in. I just got an e-mail update that SeanT has replied so I'm gonna shutup now and read what he had to say.
 
Yeah, we all get it if the astrea/cerith snail population isn't there in proper numbers.

You say you have 14 snails in your tank, a 58 gallon.
That isn't enough Rob.
I would bump up the numbers to about 20 Astrea's and 40 Cerith's to start.
This should take care of the problem in a matter of days.

Your rocks still have some PO4 in them, no way to clean it all out completely and the Astrea's would love to mow this down.

Sean
 
On a not so side topic to all you BB'ers (and anyone who has a tank) you can NOT slack on your CC crew.

Give me a minute to find an old thread.
 
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