Cooking Liverock

[LoneStar]

Hey mom what smells soooo.......bad :sick :P

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/Saltwater%20MAAST/oven.jpg

So I am going to be setting up a 75g in a few months. I am going to start collecting rock at local fish stores gradually, to help diffuse the cost and also to get pieces that look/work good. Since I got a large time frame before the new tank gets running I am going to 'cook' the liverock for 2 months or so.

So who on here has 'cooked' their liverock before throwing it in their tanks? The basic premise on what I have seen is that you set up a tub/aquarium/kiddie pool with saltwater, pump, and possibly skimmer. You let it sit, allowing all the organics to die/shed off leaving nice clean rock to be placed in your tank. Hopefully this will get rid of any hitchhikers, both moving and coral/polyp. I know in the past I would just throw rock into my tank and that invited a lot of 'unwanted' pests to my tank.

I remember a long time ago seeing Brian (greenmako) do it to his rock. Got any pointers? And anyone else please chime in here. I'm all ears :)

Oh and you think any stores will be selling kiddie pools this time of year? :lol

[erick]

wal mart for the kiddie pools, or home depot/lowes ask for a sand box if they dont have kiddie pools, same thing....... Unwanted hitch hikers might not "die off" if you are curing the rock, some can hide in crevaces w/o water for a long time. For nice clean (no organics/hitch hikers, etc.. nothing but base rock) clean with a bleach solution then let dry, then add to saltwater cure process. Although, this defeats the purpose of live rock- killing everything off....... My suggestion is to buy the rock you desire, put it in the pool with proper salinity/temp/ water parameters, skimmer, etc... look for unwanted hitchhikers and such and deal with them on an individual basis, that way you keep the beneficial pods and bacteria and do away with all unwanted pests..... Search wwm for live rock and you will find a plethora of usefull info........Erick......

[Jeff]

i thought that you had to keep the rock covered with no light showing, once a week pull it out and wash it off and put into new clean water, cover and repeat for 6 weeks or more.

[LoneStar]

i thought that you had to keep the rock covered with no light showing, once a week pull it out and wash it off and put into new clean water, cover and repeat for 6 weeks or more.

Thats what I thought too Jeff. Once a week or so pull the rock out and rinse it out good (ie in a trash can full of ro water). Since the container I will be holding the rock will be in the garage, there will slim to no light exposed to the rock. At first I will not use a skimmer on it but whenever I get one I will hook it up and see how much 'gunk' I can pull out.

[mathias]

and doesn't this make the rock not live rock.... and then you seed the tank with 2 or 3 rocks and those will have hitchhikers :)

[LoneStar]

Well wouldn't you have the bacteria still growing on the rock as it sits on the saltwater over that time frame?

[mathias]

What I heard is since there is no light and no food or other additives that all the bacteria eats itself up till none is left.....

[LoneStar]

ahh ok

[seamonkey2]

once I kept 200 pounds of LR in 2 40ga trash cans with SW, a MJ for circulation and I would alternate using a skimmer, there were so many pods living in it it wasn't even funny

you can borrow the 40ga cans w/wheels if you want

Jose

[LoneStar]

Thanks Jose I will have to take you up on that offer! :)

[seamonkey2]

no problem

Jose

[SAtiger]

This might be a dumb idea and I'm probably missing something, but why not just buy "dead" rock and then use some water from, or soak a carbon filter in, your current tank to kick start the bacteria? Wouldn't that be cheaper and ensure you don't get the hitchhikers? I know I bought some "dead" rock for my base and then added the "live" rock to it and within a few weeks the "dead" rock was good to go. Just a thought.

[LoneStar]

This might be a dumb idea and I'm probably missing something, but why not just buy "dead" rock and then use some water from, or soak a carbon filter in, your current tank to kick start the bacteria? Wouldn't that be cheaper and ensure you don't get the hitchhikers? I know I bought some "dead" rock for my base and then added the "live" rock to it and within a few weeks the "dead" rock was good to go. Just a thought.

Yeah thats another option too.

I'm just throwing the topic out for discussion here. I have heard people on this board doing it and just wanted to understand the theory behind it better. Also the procedures in doing it.

[mathias]

I like the hitchhikers and aiptasia gives me something to do :) (jk)

[JimD]

Youre basicly just re-curing the rock, most people "cook" their rock before going bare-bottom to allow the rock to shed the stored accumulated detritus before putting it in the tank. Its still very much alive, just without all the collective organic nasties.

[JimD]

Youre basicly just re-curing the rock, most people "cook" their rock before going bare-bottom to allow the rock to shed the stored accumulated detritus before putting it in the tank. Its still very much alive, just without all the collective organic nasties.

[fishypets]

I have been cooking rock in my garage for about four weeks now. You don't need a skimmer but what you do need is total darkness and some flow. I rinse my rock once a week and perform a 100% water change after the rock has been scrubbed and rinsed. Make sure you have about 4 buckets to perform the rinsing and work your way down rinsing each piece in each bucket. I change out the water in the rinse buckets about 5 times during the process and boy does is the rock dirty. After week three I started to notice how much cleaner the rock looks. I'll post some progress pics this weekend.

-Clint

[fishypets]

Yeah total darkness is the key.

[matt]

Don't rinse it in R.O. water, rinse it in salt water. I think the basic idea is to periodically shake off all the detritus and put it in clean water. You should probably regulate the temp, keeping it around 77-80. Personally, I'd want to keep some light on it too; you're paying alot for the algae, why kill it?

[fishypets]

Cooking=no light

Curing=some light.

I wouldn't worry about algae growing back, that will come with time and some "seeded" rock.

[gjuarez]

Cooking live rock works best with no light at all. You want to take away all of the sources of food for algae. Clint is doing it the right way, the only thing I think i would do different is add a skimmer,but thats just my opinion. The reason I say no light is because you want algae to feed on phosphates rather than photosynthesis, soaking more and more phosphates through time. After the algae exhausts the phosphates, it will starve to death. Its very important to do 100% water changes a week, and to take the rock and shake really well to get rid of as much detritus as possible. Coraline algae will die, but it will grow back. Getting rid of the algae and the stored phosphates provides more surface area for aerobic bacteria to grow, and it also opens up more pores inside the rock for anarobic bacteria to survive. Its like recharging the rock as well.

[LoneStar]

I'll post some progress pics this weekend.


Thanks Clint for the info. If you got any before and after shots that might help people see the difference it makes. I am going for a very clean setup this time. No detritus or unwanted stuff on the rocks is just a way of helping it.



Yeah total darkness is the key.

Jose is letting me borrow two trash cans, so I will be able to cover them completely. I will keep them in the garage too. My roommates have no use for the garage, so there will not be a whole lot of light in there unless I am working in there.




Don't rinse it in R.O. water, rinse it in salt water. I think the basic idea is to periodically shake off all the detritus and put it in clean water. You should probably regulate the temp, keeping it around 77-80.

Yeah I caught myself thinking why rinse in R.O. water after I posted it earlier. I am going to rinse it in clean saltwater. The rinsing should help remove the detritus build up.



Cooking live rock works best with no light at all. You want to take away all of the sources of food for algae. Clint is doing it the right way, the only thing I think i would do different is add a skimmer,but thats just my opinion. The reason I say no light is because you want algae to feed on phosphates rather than photosynthesis, soaking more and more phosphates through time. After the algae exhausts the phosphates, it will starve to death. Its very important to do 100% water changes a week, and to take the rock and shake really well to get rid of as much detritus as possible. Coraline algae will die, but it will grow back. Getting rid of the algae and the stored phosphates provides more surface area for aerobic bacteria to grow, and it also opens up more pores inside the rock for anarobic bacteria to survive. Its like recharging the rock as well.

Thats a great explanation Jerry. I'm not sure I am going to use a skimmer while doing it but I may change my mind. Currently I do not have one but once I do order one, I might run it just to see what I can pull out of the water. Like any of our tanks, its all like big experiments anyways... Since I have 3 day weekends off from work, I am sure it will be easy to keep up with the weekly duties of cleaning the rock. Do it right the first time... on the 5th tank ;)

[seamonkey2]

SAtiger that is not a dumb idea at all, using dead rock is a very good Idea, it will save you ALOT of money, if setting up a large tank, I bought 100 pounds of dead pickany rock when I was going to set up my 240 put it with the existing LR and 3 months later you couldnt tell the difference.

Jose

[ackelley]

where did you get the dead rock from?

[seamonkey2]

Felipe at FA order it for me, large and small pieces, very cheap and very lite, I think I got around 20 pieces of good size

Jose

[JeremyGlen]

My next tank is going to be filled with cooked rock from the start. I want to do this so I can pick and choose what I have in the tank.

After cooking the rock, it has so much bacteria on it you don't really have to wait for the tank to cycle. If you want coralline algae, just get scrapings from other people's tanks. Also, you can just go buy pods to seed your tank with. Its like setting up a clean room, or clean tank.

You can do the same thing with the dry rock, just cheaper. The dry rock is going to have crap all over it, even if you rinse it first.

[LoneStar]

Thanks for the trash cans Jose.

Well as of now I got around 40 pounds of live rock. Just a small dent ;) but theres plenty of time to get some more. There is roughly 20 gallons of saltwater circulating with a MJ1200 and a 150w heater. Tomorrow I gotta find a cheap scrub brush and knock off most of the debris on the rocks. Pictures will come tomorrow also. Hopefully I can document how clean the rock will get over the next month or so. :)

[LoneStar]

Here is some rock I got so far. A little from Aquatic Warehouse, some from Jeff, and the rest is from Ed at Wolf Reef.

The rock on the left side of the tank is what I got at the November meeting today. :)

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/75g%20Build/lrtank1.jpg
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/75g%20Build/lrtank4.jpg
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/75g%20Build/lrtank2.jpg
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/75g%20Build/lrtank3.jpg

Hopefully I can get rid of the greenstar polyps and other critters that is inhabiting my rock now ;)
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/75g%20Build/lrtank6.jpg
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/75g%20Build/lrtank5.jpg

Jose (seamonkey) is letting me borrow his 44g Brute trashcans. 1 is for the live rock the other is just giving me more water storage for the mean time. In the trash can with the rock there is a Maxijet 1200 for circulation and a 150w JeboJager heater.
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/75g%20Build/lrtank8.jpg
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/75g%20Build/lrtank7.jpg

[AquaDen]

If you want no hitch hikers then take your rock and put in on a tarp and let it dry out and let it completely die off. "Dry rock" is becoming more and more popular because of the unwanted critters that come with live rock. I done this same thing with my rock before and of course with the right aquarium health the rock will "purple up" in no time and you will not transfer any unwanted diseases or critters. It sounds harsh but does the job! Look on eBay, dry rock sells for more money than live rock??

[LoneStar]

Its been a week since I started the cooking process. I have roughly 80 pounds so far, with another 20 or so that I still want to get. Here are some photos of the weekly cleaning process. Although I am not totally surprised about how much stuff that has shedded off so far, its more than I thought :)

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/75g%20Build/cleaningrock1.jpg
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/75g%20Build/cleaningrock2.jpg


The scrub brush has done a good job so far cleaning off apatasia and greenstar polyps. Die! Pests Die! :skeezy
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/75g%20Build/cleaningrock3.jpg

How dirty the water was in the holding trash can after one week
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/75g%20Build/cleaningrock4.jpg

The cleaning bucket. That was fresh saltwater before I started :sick
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/75g%20Build/cleaningrock5.jpg

The rock is in 15g of fresh saltwater, with pumps and heater ready for another week. Hopefully each week I will be cleaning more and more :P

[mathias]

thats cool..... keep us updated...

[LoneStar]

**Week 2**

Just got done cleaning the rock for the 2nd week. This time I filled up 2 buckets of saltwater for the cleaning. Dunk, swish, shake, repeat. I used 1 for the main cleaning and the other for the rinsing. There was ALOT of stuff that has come off the rock still. Both buckets had some nasty dirty water in them. After the rock was cleaned, I rinsed out the main trash can and filled it up again with fresh salt water.

And a note, this is a great way to kill off green star polyps. (Jeff) After 1 week those suckers were still attached to the rock but after week 2, most of them have shed off :) The coraline algea has started to turn white, but I pretty much expected that. Thats no biggie because it will grow back once the rock gets placed in the tank.

[Jeff]

i was thinking of taking what rock that had green star polyp on it and just soaking it in bleach. then all i have to do is rinse and drop it back into another spare tank for cycling.l

[seamonkey2]

ARGHHH!!! you guys are killing GSP? I love GSP(the mettalic green kind specially), Jeff if want to get rid of some, lets trade LR

I want Gsp all over my tank, but thats just me

LMK

Jose

[LoneStar]

ARGHHH!!! you guys are killing GSP? I love GSP(the mettalic green kind specially), Jeff if want to get rid of some, lets trade LR


I wish I knew that!



I want Gsp all over my tank, but thats just me


I rather like it too but in this new tank I don't want it ;) I have three different types in my nano and I'm letting it just take over :)

[LoneStar]

I forgot to post photos from yesterday.

Here are the cleaning buckets. You start with clean saltwater. Dunk, swish, shake, repeat. Once one gets dirty, switch to a cleaner bucket ;)

Bucket 1
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/75g%20Build/cleaningrock6.jpg

Bucket 2
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/75g%20Build/cleaningrock7.jpg

The rock after the cleaning
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/75g%20Build/cleaningrock8.jpg