Rock cooking, it does work.

[christopherl]

SeanT

Another question. How did your sps look while the rock was out? Did they look better or worse? Did they start to color up even before you put the rock back in?

 

[SeanT]

Yes, they colored up while the rock (and the nutrients in the rock) were out of the system.

graveyardworm,
The bubble algae you see in my pics is from one of two things.
1. It is an old pic.
2. It is from a rock (smallish sized) that did not get cooked because it had a nice colony on it. Such as the rock on the left in the first "After" pic I posted.

All the bubble algae on the rocks I cooked is long gone.

I am not a big fan of mounting corals to large rocks.
I like to mount them to smaller rocks and, with epoxy, mount the smaller rocks to the large rocks.

The epoxy holds them there very nicely but has the ability to break, with a twist, if you want to take out or move that coral.

 

[Scuba Oz]

I have heard that this method is great, and thats its bad. I think we can all agree in this forum there is great debate sometimes. But my question is, has this method ( or better choice of words) ever been proven in anyway, or is this just a good idea that caught on?

 

[SeanT]

Scuba Oz,

Don't confuse this method with the debate raging about "DSB -v- BB".

That is a different topic all together and let's not bring it in here.

Cooking rocks has nothing to do with that, though it CAN help both systems a lot.

There is noone that I know of who has said it is bad at all with anything other than completely erroneous opinions.

Cooking rocks works.
It is hard science.
Nutrients in rock, bacteria eat nutrients, you aid bacteria in getting at nutrients.
End of story.
This is no basis for a philosophical debate whatsoever.
2+2=4. And always will.
Sean

 

[SeanT]

As for proof...just look at the pics.

For "personal" proof, you need to do it or know someone that is doing it.

After you see, and SMELL, the first 4-5 water changes from the cooking tubs, you will know in the deepest pits of your soul that it works.
I dry heaved a few times at the skank that came from deep in my rockwork.
Disgustingly beautiful? Or beautifully disgusting?
You be the judge. lol
Sean

 

[john the hermit]

As for proof...just look at the pics.

For "personal" proof, you need to do it or know someone that is doing it.

After you see, and SMELL, the first 4-5 water changes from the cooking tubs, you will know in the deepest pits of your soul that it works.
I dry heaved a few times at the skank that came from deep in my rockwork.
Disgustingly beautiful? Or beautifully disgusting?
You be the judge. lol
Sean

I'll drink to that:beer:

 

[Cosmo^Kramer]

This is crud from about 7 pounds of rock that will be going into my 10 gallon nano.I think it's been about 3 days cooking in the dark.Scary think is the rock came from my sump,it's been in there about 8 months or so...sheezzz

 

[JB NY]

So what would be the point in buying all this "premium" live rock they sell? If you are planning on "cooking" your rock it would make better sense to just buy the cheap base rock and cook that. From the pictures, that seems to be what you end up with later on after cooking it anyway.

Much cheaper too. You can buy base rock at the LFS real cheap.

Not that I advocate cooking rock. But if you are going to go that route, it seems reasonable.

 

[SeanT]

Exactly Joe.

 

[john the hermit]

So what would be the point in buying all this "premium" live rock they sell? If you are planning on "cooking" your rock it would make better sense to just buy the cheap base rock and cook that. From the pictures, that seems to be what you end up with later on after cooking it anyway.

Much cheaper too. You can buy base rock at the LFS real cheap.

Not that I advocate cooking rock. But if you are going to go that route, it seems reasonable.

I'm in agreement with you JB, you should not need to cook nice new premium LR.
You will lose any macro-algae and most if not all photo synthetic life on the rock. I would only advocate this pretty effective method if your LR is old, and if it's been in a system with poor circulation and there is evidence of excessive nutrients in the tank which you suspect is from the rock.
This method of cleaning the rock,as I have found, ain't fun. It's a lot of hard work and ,although I've no doubt the rock will recover to a great degree, you will end up with pretty bare rock.
In my opinion only go down this road if you've got problems and your almost stuck with a choice of chucking your rock or cooking it. In this age we can't afford to waste any LR.
Just my two pennyworth.
John

 

[DonJasper]

I'm in agreement with you JB, you should not need to cook nice new premium LR.

I'd suggest you read Boomer's post on the first page. If you're going to 'cook' everything but the microbes off the rock - then there's no point in going out of your way to have anything but microbes to begin with.

 

[christopherl]

Joe

You know, I have one more comment to add. Personally, I'm not real interested in looking at all the lifeforms that come in on the rock. What I'm after is a nutrient poor invironment to keep sps corals.

I think so many people have blamed husbandry skills on excess algae and other nutrient related problems. Probably some are to blame on this and lack of experience. I for one am probably on that list or at least was on the list initially. I have been busy working on my system all the time to get rid of these problems with very slow success. You know I think that in a couple of years of cleaning out the tank three times a week along with my other daily tasks I could probably get rid of my nutrient issues. But I have decided to not to wait that long as I've already invested way too much time on it. I can really see where these guys are coming from when they say they are on their last resort before leaving the hobby. I probably would have left already if I weren't so hard headed. I'll gaurantee you one last thing. The next time I buy rock it won't be aquacultured. I'm gonna buy just a little live rock and the rest will be base. My water has been nitrate free from day one and the phosphate level has been high. I'm sick of looking at brown corals that still look like frags after two years.

 

[john the hermit]

I'd suggest you read Boomer's post on the first page. If you're going to 'cook' everything but the microbes off the rock - then there's no point in going out of your way to have anything but microbes to begin with.

I've got to disagree with you on this.
I didn't cook my rocks to kill everything but the microbes. For a start it doesn't kill everything, but will kill most photo synthetic life.
I started some years ago with well cured base rock and some premium well shaped Fuji rock, also already cured. This came from a well respected and capable LFS who go to great trouble to cure the rock properly and retain as much "life" as possible given the time it takes to ship LR to the UK.
This LR has performed well for about 6 years, maybe 7, and retained much of the "life" it originally had, which I accept is precious little compared to what it has in the sea.
I "cooked" my rock because I had a nutrient problem mainly caused by my own neglect and poor circulation, again, my fault. My rock was full of "mud" which I needed to remove. The killing of anything else was a side effect.
A great many people have had set ups for far longer than me, which, with proper management and good circulation, still look good with healthy fish and colourful corals that grow well, they don't need to "cook" their rock.
So I didn't cook my LR to kill everthing but the microbes, it was the only way I could see to clean the inside of it properly.
John

 

[christopherl]

One more thing Joe,

I have read your website numerous times and would like to congradulate you on one extremely spectacular system. Also I think everyone should thank you for all the great knowledge you have added to this site. Your lighting studies have helped countless hobbiests i'm sure.

 

[JB NY]

Thank you very much for that christopherl.

 

[Bomber]

I'd suggest you read Boomer's post on the first page. If you're going to 'cook' everything but the microbes off the rock - then there's no point in going out of your way to have anything but microbes to begin with.

It's Bom-B-er

You've just got to love when people that have never done something, tell you how it's going to come out.

I course I 'cook' all my rock. You guys have no idea how much phosphate is in rock - live, dead, no life, or full of life.
Here's the result of "cooking" rock. All of these grew out of my rock after I cooked it. Why? because the rock didn't poison it.

 

[Bomber]

 

[SeanT]

You will lose any macro-algae and most if not all photo synthetic life on the rock.

Who want's macroalgae in their display?
I sure don't.
It can be pretty but it can sure spread quick if your nutrients raise up.

 

[john the hermit]

Sorry Sean, I didn't mean that keeping macroalgae was necessarily to be desired, simply that cooking would almost certainly kill it.
To be fair I don't know how much "life" you guys in the States get on your rock when new, but over here you're lucky to get much more than algae with most of it. Which goes to negate my reasons for not really needing to cook new rock, at least for us.
Although with my system I had no algae problems for a number of years, it was only later that it became a problem so I decided to "cook".
John

 

[ozadars]

What kind of sea hare did you try Sean to get rid of hair algae?