Rock cooking, it does work.

rock cooking question

rock cooking question

Hi Guys-
Background- My old tank was a 55 FOWLR. I had poor flow, poor skimming, poor lighting and a lot of hair algae. I upgraded to a 90 gallon with much improved systems. I put the HA infested rock back in the tank with the hopes that the improvements would win the war against the HA. Well after a few months of being disgusted with the look of all that HA, I began the process of cooking the rock. I followed the instructions on this thread.

I took the rock from my tank in two batches about 2 weeks apart. For the first month I did multiple weekly water changes and after that I did/do them more or less monthly. (I have not been religious about this part and I wonder if that is my problem)

It has been about 4 months since beginning the cooking process and my rocks still have HA on them. I have read that it usually takes about 2 months. Is this a sign that my rock is "dead"? Is there a lack of benefficial bacteria in the rock to break down the HA? Anybody got any ideas?

Thanks

Steve
 
That is a good point. I have it in a "rubbermaid" type tub with a lid and I drape towels over it for good measure. I can only assume it is completly dark inside.
 
globe urchins are the way to go in controling a hair algae problem, asuming of course you don't have a high nitrate level with some phosphate. I had a slight hair algae problem and put to globe urchins in my tank. two weeks later not a single hair algae issue. I went back to my log book and noticed a slight rise in nitrates and some trace of phosphate just prior to the bloom. I am now on top of my water chemistry better.
look at a container of miracle grow what do you see listed? Nitrogen and Phosphate.
 
i'm sure this has been covered before, but i'll ask anyway:

is it counterproductive to skim and use phosban while cooking rock? and how important is it that the cooking vat is completely dark?
 
cbpent
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To Reef Central
 
Skimming - Unknown due to lack of testing. SeanT has mentioned he's wondered whether it would make the process any shorter or not.

Phosban/GFO - Again unknown due to lack of testing. I've thought myself it'd help, but haven't tried it.

With either of those. I don't see how they'd hurt and they might possibly help. So it could be worth trying it and letting everyone know about the results. If you could do your cooking in 2 batches simultaneously and 1 skim, 1 not to have a control, that would work best.

As for light. Very important that it's dark. If you have to, throw a thick tarp over the whole thing.
 
SeanT,

How is your rock still doing? Is it algae free and happy? I don't really have a problem with hair algae or even turf algae. My problem is caulerpa. :( So, I'm thinking of cooking all my rock. Hehe

Peace,
John
 
My virgin post. :smokin:

It was simply breathtaking to read 2 separate threads talking about the same thing.. Kudos to SeanT and Bomber and others like Nathan, nick etc :p

Apart from 'cooking' per se, why hasn't anyone discussed about using LRs which naturally have little phosphorus to begin with? I mean specifically deep water tonga LRs which have very little nutrients like NO3 or PO4 and these rocks are known to be very porous compared to those very dense Indo LRs?

I suppose, then, we do not have to cook these and it certainly will make life easier to kickstart a reef on a long term orientation.. The downside however, in the far east here, is that the tonga ones probably cost at least 4 times the price of the Indo ones.. ;)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7567882#post7567882 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by aquabeanz
My virgin post. :smokin:

It was simply breathtaking to read 2 separate threads talking about the same thing.. Kudos to SeanT and Bomber and others like Nathan, nick etc :p

Apart from 'cooking' per se, why hasn't anyone discussed about using LRs which naturally have little phosphorus to begin with? I mean specifically deep water tonga LRs which have very little nutrients like NO3 or PO4 and these rocks are known to be very porous compared to those very dense Indo LRs?

I suppose, then, we do not have to cook these and it certainly will make life easier to kickstart a reef on a long term orientation.. The downside however, in the far east here, is that the tonga ones probably cost at least 4 times the price of the Indo ones.. ;)
Click to expand...

I think one of the issues for many people is that they get really nice rock to begin with and through poor maintenance practices (low flow, overfeeding, uneffective skimming, etc.) The phosphorus content of their rock begins to rapidly accumulate and start to cause problems so people see this as a good way of restarting their systems. It's not so much a matter of what rock you have, but more a matter of how you maintain your rock in the long run.

Peace,
John H.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7571058#post7571058 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rufio173
I think one of the issues for many people is that they get really nice rock to begin with and through poor maintenance practices (low flow, overfeeding, uneffective skimming, etc.) The phosphorus content of their rock begins to rapidly accumulate and start to cause problems so people see this as a good way of restarting their systems. It's not so much a matter of what rock you have, but more a matter of how you maintain your rock in the long run.

Peace,
John H.
Click to expand...

Exactly,

Which is what people need to realize. Rock cooking is not a solution to anything. Its a reset switch. It brings you back to square one, where you can try again.

If you dont fix the bad habits, you'll be back in the same place.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7571209#post7571209 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RichConley
Exactly,

Which is what people need to realize. Rock cooking is not a solution to anything. Its a reset switch. It brings you back to square one, where you can try again.

If you dont fix the bad habits, you'll be back in the same place.
Click to expand...
Hey thanks trueblack!

Cool.. i would then reckon that investing in a turkey baster that is long enough to reach into those nook and crannies of our LRs would also be considered a good husbandry practice uh? :lol: Constantly blasting those detritus which gets trapped in the LRs and skim them out efficiently...

Im also doing a major complete 'resetting' now for my 130G.. however i did not and won't be considering the SwiShing methodology as it entails too much physical work (my family might think i have gone berserk with reefkeeping :lol: ) am using a Maxijet1200 to scan the LRs at those difficult spots.. it's amazing how much gunk you get outta this maxijetting.. you guys can try that out..

one last thing though, i employed a little regime of dosing vodka hoping that the bacterial bloom might hasten the process a little (my apologies, but i miss some colors in the tank thus getting impatient already :smokin: ) Someone mentioned earlier that it would be better to starve the bacteria so they effectively perform 'turgor'.. i don't know, what do you guys think? :confused: i get much more gunk than before i realised.. ;)
in fact the skimmate gets a little orangey.. any idea what that might be? PO4 i hope?

Rgs
Rob;) ;)
 
Then I will post this here ...

Is all that really necessary?

When I broke down my old tank back this past December I had loads of Hair Algae growth.

My bulbs had not been changed in years and the tank had been very badly neglected over those previous 3 years. I had gotten rid of most of the corals before I let the tank slide. I didnt do a water change in 3 years. There were only 2 fish, a Tomatoe clown and a Yellow Pygmy angel that I had for years, and still have.
The old VHO's went out and werent replaced for several months. The tank was only lit by a single 40 watt daylight tube that wasnt even shining directly into the tank. It was for lighting the fish room. While that was the only light, the hair algae died off, nearly all of it, probably 95% gone. I replaced the lamps, 4 110 watt VHO with new VHO. I started back up with water changes. Within a couple weeks of the new lights the HA was coming back strong. Within a month it was all over the pace again. I began running alumina based phosphate absorbing media. I did start to make a small dent in the hair algae problem with that, it looked like it was starting to die off. But there was still loads of it.

I broke the tank down last december to move into a new 90 gallon. The old one was probably about 70 gallons with a small sump. I removed all the live rock and placed it in a rubbermaid tub with a powerhead. It was in there maybe 4 or 5 days before being placed into the new tank. I set up the new 90 with a Plenum and DSB. All new substrate except about 10 or 15 lbs from the old tank. New water. And all I did was scrub the HA off the live rock in a rubbermaid container containing the old water from the tank. Just brushed it off, and rinsed the rock, agitated it in the old tank water. We actually cleaned the rock pretty well, I would say we got 95% of the HA off of it.
Had the 1 month old VHO lighting that we switched to T5, then Halide and T5. It's been 7 months and there is no Hair Algae in the new tank. The tiny bit that was left on the live rock quickly died off. I did run GFO as preventative measure from day one of starting the new tank.

Thats it, no cooking of LR. Just brushing, in old water. All of it, 120 lbs all brushed off and shook up in the same 30 gallons of old water. Now maybe there were factors in the old tank contributing to the hair algae aside from what cooking supposedly does to LR to eliminate the hair algae. I dont know. I'm not saying the cooking doesnt work. I dont know. All I know is that all I did was brush off the Live Rock. I did change alot of things in switching tanks ... new water, new substrate (except 15 lbs). But it seems like cooking assumes that something is on the rock itself that causes the HA growth. So again, is it necessary to go through the time consuming process of "cooking" the rock? Because brushing and rinsing is all I did and no HA, so far, after 7 months. BTW, this same rock I have had for over 10 years.
 
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