cooking rocks?
- Thread starter kirshman
- Start date
snakeblitz33
Well-Known Member
I wouldn't cook live rock at all. The process would kill the life on the rock.
Base rock cooking is pretty easy. You use an extra glass tank or a trusted plastic food grade container and you set your rocks in it with a powerhead and you can add chlorine bleach for a couple weeks to leach out the organics in the Rock and then you can empty that water and use a muriatic acid and water solution to help pull phosphates out of the rock.
Most of the time though cooking the rock is unnecessary
Base rock cooking is pretty easy. You use an extra glass tank or a trusted plastic food grade container and you set your rocks in it with a powerhead and you can add chlorine bleach for a couple weeks to leach out the organics in the Rock and then you can empty that water and use a muriatic acid and water solution to help pull phosphates out of the rock.
Most of the time though cooking the rock is unnecessary
bang guy
Moderator
My thoughts on cooking are a bit different. I would place the rock in a good sized container with plenty of water, waterflow, and a heater cranked up to 85 or 86. Then add vodka or some other sugar occasionally to increase bacteria activity.
I would only cook rock that was live a one point and was exposed to excess ammonia. This can happen if the ammonia during a cycle is allowed to climb above 1.0ppm. The evidence is usually an abundance of filament algae or Cyanobacter growing only on the rock even though the water reads 0.00 phosphate.
I would only cook rock that was live a one point and was exposed to excess ammonia. This can happen if the ammonia during a cycle is allowed to climb above 1.0ppm. The evidence is usually an abundance of filament algae or Cyanobacter growing only on the rock even though the water reads 0.00 phosphate.
beaslbob
Well-Known Member
"cooking" live rocks is an extreme extension of my always recommending killing the lights and stopping all feeding so cyano or algae dies off and the tank clears up.
As bang guy stated you don't actually "cook" the rocks as in baking or boiling but instead keep them in darkness so that the algae and cyano dies off. and it also give a chance for the phosphates to seep out from the rock as well.
As bang guy stated you don't actually "cook" the rocks as in baking or boiling but instead keep them in darkness so that the algae and cyano dies off. and it also give a chance for the phosphates to seep out from the rock as well.