Cooking live rock

[Mr_Cool]

I've been cooking some live rock for the past month or so. It's been in some Rubbermaid bins with a powerhead to circulate the water. The lids have been on, too, to keep the light out. Am I doing this correctly? I have some other questions, too .........

1. I'm doing a water change right now, and thought I'd use the water I'm taking out of the system to replace the water in the Rubbermaid bins. Good idea? Bad idea? Doesn't really matter?

2. I've been cooking it to try to get rid of some Aptasia and Bubble algae. I don't know if I want to put too much more rock in the display tank, though. I'm going to look for the nicer pieces and was thinking about putting the rest in the sump or fuge. Which would be better?

3. If there's still some Aptasia or Bubble algae on what's left, will it hurt anything putting it down there?

I'm going to finish the water change and swap the water in the tubs. Then, I'll check back to see if anyone has any answers. I'm sure changing the water in the Rubbermaid bins won't hurt anything. Really looking for answers to #2 and #3. Thanks in advance.

[LoneStar]

Ok here is what I learned while cooking my live rock.

Weekly water changes is a must for the first 6 weeks. After that, every 2-3 weeks will work. You will want to do a 100% water change with fresh saltwater everytime. The point of cooking the liverock is to deplete the algea and other critters from the live rock from any nutrients (both in the water and hidden from light). Using water from your tank will only hinder the rock from truely cooking.

If you do notice Aptasia, you can pull that piece of rock out and nuke it with a lighter. Burn the heck out of it. The rock will be fine. It will only be covered by the bacteria again later. Try to remove as much of the Aptasia or Bubble algea during the cooking process. When you do the weekly water changes, you will want to set up 2 or 3 buckets of fresh saltwater to clean your rocks with. Pick up a new scrub brush and clean the rock with it. It will scrape off any algea or pests. Then you want to dunk and swish the rock in the buckets of water. This will help clean off the rock. Trust me it works. The water will turn black...even weeks into the process. Its amazing how much stuff falls off that rock.

Other than that, its just a time consuming process. 2 months minimum.

[MissT]

also, make sure that you aren't popping the bubble algae in the container where the rest of your rock is because you could just spread the spores and it will be everywhere. It's a lot easier to get rid of the aiptasia in a rubbermaid container than in a show tank, so either burn it all off with a butane lighter or use an aiptasia control product. It'll save you some frustration later on... Do your water changes with fresh salt water as said before. If you want to save a little money, just keep the salinity down; the rock wont mind!

[Mr_Cool]

Well, I guess I missed the boat on that one! Thanks for the info. I'll have to start cooking it the right way after Thanksgiving.

[crossxfire2]

wait, what is the point of this process?

[LoneStar]

wait, what is the point of this process?

To turn your live rock into a clean pallet. Its basically 'curing' live rock to the extreme. It is popular for those who run bare bottom tanks, since the cooking process removes a lot of detritus from the rocks. Plus there will be no more nuscience algea remaining. Although the algea and pests will be removed, the live rock will remain very active with bacteria.

You can always search for 'cooking live rock' on ReefCentral and you will find a lot of threads about it. Here was my learning experience:
http://maast.org/forums/showthread.php?t=34461&highlight=live+rock

**NOTE** This is a great way to remove annoying green star polyps!

[brewercm]

I did similar but I went and actually killed "everything" on the rock. I put mine in a trash can and put a swimming pool tablet in with it. Left it in there for a couple of weeks and then did several fresh water cleans of several days each (pump circulating) on the last two. It was now basically dead base rock but that was fine for my needs and re-seeded with fresh live rock. Been up and running now for going on a year with no problems.