should we revise the term 'cooking rock?'

[Sk8r]

We have a LOT of people suppose that this means the literal application of heat. [The process actually means aging the rock in a tub, in light deprivation, with aeration, and getting any dieoff off the rock before putting it in your tank.]

I worry that sooner or later we're going to have some confused new reefer boiling his rock on the stove---maybe some have, and are just not going to admit it.

Any suggestions for another way to describe this process?

Light-starving your rock?
Tubbing your rock?

[And, frankly, having had my rock 'cook' during a move, I'd give anything to have my rock back in its original cruddy, live-sponges, lotsa worms state, in which it existed my tank for a year before the move. The ONLY things that survived the event were one hermit, aiptasia, and, yep, caulerpa. I'm not sure what-all the process kills, but you'd have to argue me into it were I the recipient of lovely, crappy live rock.]

 

[Nano Chris]

Try talking about 'cooking rock' in front of other people, than have them calling the cops, than investigating you for drugs...

I heard stories about this, and about a guy that had police come to his door about his bright lights thinking he was growing something in his basement, cops got foiled with that one.

 

[smcdonn]

You know whats funny, I really thought you did boil the rock. Although I havent done it, I highly considered it since I have had a bunch of hair algae. Instead I just pulled a bunch of rock out and put it in a tub with a powerhead and no light. Didn't realize I was cooking it?? Hey you learn something new every day. And I've been in this hobby well over a year now.

 

[Sk8r]

I'm among them: first time I heard the term, I knew better than to boil it [I've been at this 40 years] but I thought maybe it was elevating the temperature...

Personally, I'm for 'tubbing rock' as a term instead of 'cooking.'

 

[smcdonn]

Sk8r, im with you. I knew you didn't physically boil the rock, but I thought you stuck a bunch of heaters in there and got the water drastically warmer than it needs to be.

I think Tubbing Rock sounds pretty good.

 

[cloudjockey]

I would also go with tubbing rock. I also cooking meant to boil it when I first started. I wonder if anyone ever did.

 

[hmello@bermexin]

Hate to bring this up but how about the term "bleaching rock". If we are about the business of redefining reefspeak we should look at that also. My understanding of bleaching is to set the rock out of water out in the sun to dry and kell off life. (seems to be mostly algae when I her it) then you need to "cook the rock" to get it ready to go back into the display. I wonder how many people have actually used bleach on their rock because of this term?

Tubbing sounds good to me for cooking.
Open Air drying for bleaching?

 

[Zann]

yeah when i started i thought hey why are they cooking (boiling) the rock
of course i didnt

 

[Shagsbeard]

'bleaching' would be worse than 'cooking'. Just a little bleach in a tank will crash it.

'blanching' might be a better term, because that will at least get someone to ask "what's 'blanching' mean?" before they do it.

'Entombing' might get a few votes... as that's kind of what we're doing. Might be a good topic for a poll after we get a few candidate words.

'Tubbing' is descriptive, but isn't really a word. We might as well adopt 'pfrtgl'.

Right now if it were to be a poll, I'd vote for "starving".

 

[Tennsquire]

You don't cook the rock as much as you simmer it, long and slow....

 

[papagimp]

Why don't we just stick to "curing rock" since that is what we are doing...curing the rock. If a newbie doesn't know what curring the rock means, I'm sure they are not going to take it to a hospital and see the doctor, so it's a safer term. And when they get confused they can ask....as they should, or get a decent reef keeping book and learn, instead of assuming they know what is meant by cooking the rock or bleaching it or whaterver we happen to be talking about at the time.

I like the "pfrtgl" term, seems to make sense to me. after all, we've all pfrtgl'ed our rock before right? LOL

 

[chewie]

I boiled my OLD dead LR.

It sat under cover out in my yard dry for about 2 years. Before that, it was laden with hair algae, aiptasia, bubble algae, and the BANE of reefkeeping........... colonial hydroids.

I boiled each batch(outside) for 2 hours, scrubbed, swished, and dried and repeated twice.

I cured it in tubs with S/W for a few weeks, and then seeded it with a few select pieces of rock from another one of my systems.

In 3-6 months I had coralline, sponges, tunicates, pods, feather dusters ect.

no more aiptasia, colonial hydroids, or hair algae, but I did get bubble algae from a small frag of ricordia that I added. oh well.

The tank is doing quite well for recycled rock. If I can search I will find a pic here somewhere.

 

[chewie]

Cool, search worked!

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1097067

 

[danch]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10185915#post10185915 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by papagimp
Why don't we just stick to "curing rock" since that is what we are doing...curing the rock.

Curing doesn't really imply the extended sit in darkness that 'cooking' indicates, though, does it?

 

[hmello@bermexin]

I think Papagimp gimp is right. We should do away with cooking and bleaching.
From Webster:
cure....."to prepare or alter especially by chemical or physical processing for keeping or use "

By the way it has been a long time since I pfrtgl'ed anything or anybody. :spin2:

 

[zma21]

"Aging the rock"?

 

[papagimp]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10186147#post10186147 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by danch
Curing doesn't really imply the extended sit in darkness that 'cooking' indicates, though, does it?

When I stand at the stove, cooking my hamburger helper for the night, nothing at all implies to me "extended sit in darkness". lol.
But I do think, "yummy boiling bits of meat and noodles"

 

[danch]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10187115#post10187115 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by papagimp
When I stand at the stove, cooking my hamburger helper for the night, nothing at all implies to me "extended sit in darkness". lol.
But I do think, "yummy boiling bits of meat and noodles"

Exactly the problem S8er is bringing up in this thread. My point is that when I hear 'curing rock' I think of just letting it resolve its die off issues and cycle so that it isn't producing net ammonia or nitrites. When I hear 'cooking rock' I think of setting in in a tub in my basement covered and without light for a couple months in an attempt to kill of aglae. The people who advocate 'cooking' rock, I'm sure wouldn't think of my 'curing' as the same thing at all.

 

[papagimp]

Well, IMHO putting rock in a covered tub in the basement without light to get rid of algae is kinda dumb in my opinion. Your not helping the situation at all, your just getting rid of a sympton...algae. If you have algae problems that bad, then there is something completely wrong with the setup/water quality, cause the rock is certainly not the problem here, it's just where the algae grew, nothing more.

Besides, when you get right down to it, why change the name of anything in this hobby, why not just educate new people (as we try to do in this forum). After all, we already use the word curing, if we teach new people what this means, instead of having to make up a new phrase and then teach em that.......ya'll see what I'm trying to say here?

Sk8r, not trying to spring any arguments, just had my opinion and thoughts and kinda rolled with it. Keep up the great work you do here on RC.

 

[Sk8r]

Point taken, Papagimp-----just that particular error is so expensive if someone actually does it, it's tank-wise ruinous, and since it's pre-setup, it's more likely someone might do it just while lurking on the boards and before whoever-tis has gotten brave enough to post and ask. There's this time between rank newbiedom and the nerve to post and ask a 'dumb question'.

We probably need a 'don'ts' thread, conspicuously posted in the newbie forum that says (1. cooking rock doesn't involve heat (2. never put a copper-based disease treatment in your tank (3. putting new fish into your tank without a quarantine is a really big risk (4. Fish growth is NOT limited by tank size.

If we could get everybody to read those 4 statements from the git-go, those of us who've been at this a while could save a *lot* of typing.