Rock Cooking question, need help quick

[NoSchwag]

Let me thank you in advance for helping me out.

I am in the process of setting up a tank with only my rocks and lighting left to get.

I am going to a guys house tonight to look at about 100lbs of live rock that he had in his old tank for years.. He told me that it's been sitting in a bucket in his garage for about 4 months with a power head for circulation..I'm not sure how hot is get's in there, if he's been doing water changes, if it's ro/di, or if he has been keeping lights over it.

I guess my question is are these rock good candidates for cooking? I know that base rock can be cooked, but it'll take much longer for the process to be finished. I am just wondering if it's possible that these rocks are so shot, that it would take a long time for them to cook.

Thanks again.

Mike

[NoSchwag]

Also, what type of questions should I ask this guy about the rocks?

[Phishnoob]

Old rock is better and if it has been under water it should be okay with some flow and water changes. I do not think light is really essential. You might want to do the Ammonia cycle testing to make sure nothing odd is going on like an ammonia spike.

I would not put fish or inverts in there though until enough time passes to verify there are no cooties.

[NoSchwag]

Thanks I appreciate the help, but what I really need to know about is cooking the rock, not curing it.


Mike

[NoSchwag]

anyone?

[reef_noob]

This thread has some good info, not sure if it'll answer your q, but worth a read.
http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/sh...ight=cook+rock

[craigGP]

cooking the rock is essentially isolating the rock from outside nutrient sources so that the bacterial in the rock consumes all the nutrients that have clogged the rock in the form of algae, detritus, etc. usually put in the dark so there is no photosynthesis for the algae to grow. also involved in the cooking process is periodic rinsing of the rock. this usually involves taking the rocks out, sloshing them around in another bucket to get any loose material off, repeating in another bucket of clean water, and then replacing them in the original storage with new water.

i would guess that the rock has been cooking while it has been in his garage. i doubt that the sloshing part has been done, but you can do that. i assume that there has been no lights or critters fed in the tanks/buckets it has been stored in to add nutrients to the closed system. the main thing is that it has been kept wet.

other questions to ask:

no copper, right?

any unexplained problems with the tank? (doesn't tell us much about the rock, but might lead to other questions that does have to do with rock)

what kind? natural ocean collected or man made?

aptasia? mojano anemones? other pests? (probably dead from 4 months in garage, but good to know)

[NoSchwag]

Craig,

At what point will I know if I just wasted $200.00 on rocks that I can't use??

It has def. been kept wet. I went to pick it up an it was sitting in a rubbermaid with filthy salt water and a powehead.

The rock still had all sorts of corraline on it (which I could care less about) and it was pretty dark in there.

I picked up about 100 lbs of nice big pieces with all sorts of holes in it.

Right now I'm filling up a few rubbermaids with ro/di so that I can start swishing and cleaning this rock up.

I'm curious how and when i'll be able to know if the cooking is working, worked, or if I'm the ass that just wasted money on rocks that are going to kill my coral. :/

[craigGP]

i assume the ro/di will be mixed with salt... you always want to use saltwater when doing the cooking and dunking... i'd say once you are not getting much stuff out of the rocks when swishing you should be just about done. i can't imagine why it would kill your corals unless you have a cycle from stuff on the rock dying. any cycle should be taken care of in the cooking process, but i guess you could test the water that the rock is stored in to see how it registers. you could also introduce it over time instead of throwing it all in an established tank at once. that would be wise no matter what...

craig

[NoSchwag]

I just tested the water that the rocks were in..

Ammonia was 0.25
Nitrite was 0.25
Nitrates was over 30

Does this tell anyone anything that might be useful to my concern about wasting $200.00?