Heres a pictorial of my switch from SSB to BB and cooking L/R

[elephen]

Isn't it amazing how bad those rocks can smell too?

[Boat Racer]

Originally Posted by elephen

Isn't it amazing how bad those rocks can smell too?

You know I read that they stink on some peoples posts but mine have yet to stink.I dont know why.Maybe because I had them already in my tank for 3 months before I did this and basted them daily.I'm doing a dunk and swish again today along with the waterchange.They shed but dont stink.

I have a heater and an air stone in there no powerhead but I dont think would make any difference.

[Boat Racer]

Well I did another weeks cooking and again the dunk and swish.The rock has yet to show any signs of killing anything but a slight green alge that was there,not enough to even notice untill I tore the tank apart.The rock still has lots of pods living,coraline,sponges,etc.Almost a month in the dark cooking. Here are a few picks see for yourself.

[elephen]

How long has it been cooking for now?

[Boat Racer]

Not sure about the exact date but it was around the middle of January.

[elephen]

How much longer are you going to cook it for? Few more weeks?

[Boat Racer]

Originally Posted by elephen

How much longer are you going to cook it for? Few more weeks?

Thats a good question.Its hard to say realy because as I understand it you must wait untill the dunk and swish doesnt produce dirty water anylonger(two months or a little longer in some cases).Here is a picture from todays dunk and swish and as you can see its not any cleaner than the last couple time I dunked and swished so more cooking it is.Here is todays dirty water



Here is a picture of two swish's ago.

[elephen]

Wow, so you may have quite a bit longer to go

Maybe 2-3 weeks, it seems to clear up pretty quickly... Also depends on how dirty your rocks were before to though.

[trueblackpercula]

nice work

[redwinger]

Hang in there, it does work, I wish I would have done it on my tank originally but did not know about it at the time. I have since cooked about 50 pounds of rock for my sump,nano, and frag tank and you will be amazed at how clean your rock is.

[Boat Racer]

Thanx,Thats very encouraging to hear.

[NoSchwag]

Hey boat did you consider using rubbermaids all the way thru instead of 5 gal buckets?

I was using 5 gal buckets at first but found that I just couldn't get violent enough with the swishing.

[Boat Racer]

No I didnt.I was just following SeanT's instructions.It seems to be working pretty good.I get a pretty violent swish going.The rock gets swished in each bucket from both side of each rock.I dunk and swish them about 10-15 times per rock per bucket.I think I need to get like three more buckets though so that the rock is swished in cleaner water as the final swish before going back into the cook tub.It seems that the buckets of water get so dirty very quikly.

I'll consider it though.Thanx for the tip.

[NoSchwag]

Originally Posted by Boat Racer

No I didnt.I was just following SeanT's instructions.It seems to be working pretty good.I get a pretty violent swish going.The rock gets swished in each bucket from both side of each rock.I dunk and swish them about 10-15 times per rock per bucket.I think I need to get like three more buckets though so that the rock is swished in cleaner water as the final swish before going back into the cook tub.It seems that the buckets of water get so dirty very quikly.

I'll consider it though.Thanx for the tip.

At my peak I was using 5 little rubbermaids.

LOL at the end of the 5th one the water was kind of clean.. The next week there was just as much crap.

[Boat Racer]

How long did the cooking take in your case?