How to "cook" your rock.

[REEF-DADDY]

Heres a pic of my "soup" after 3 weeks, when it settled I had about 1/4 inch of crap on the bottom

[Weatherman]

Originally Posted by pwest

Two questions on cooking: salinity and temperature. I assume I don't need a 1.025 salinity level for rock cooking. To save a little money on salt, how low can I go. Also what about the temp--should I shoot for 75 degrees F or so, or might something else be better?

Thanks,
Phil

It depends on how much of the other life on the rock you wish to save.

The closer you can keep the temperature and specific gravity of your cooking bin water close to what you would keep the water in your reef tank, the more animals will survive. The colder the water becomes and the lower the specific gravity, the more stuff will die.

[realhiphop]

I started cooking my rock Sat. night. Should I wait until next Saturday to do a water change, or would I be better off doing a water change this Wed. (as you mentioned, bi-weekly for the first few weeks). I checked my tub tonight, and it doesn't look like the cooking has really begun.

[elephen]

Sean and/or Weatherson

Before I switched from my 75 SSB tank to my current 120 BB tank... I had about 100lbs of rock (which is currently cooking). I had 45lbs of rock cooked for 8 weeks (didn't shed what-so-ever) that I used for the 120.

I tore down the 75 and setup the 120 then put in all the new rock with 80-85% new salt water (perams good)... Long story short I ended up going through a cycle as if it were a brand new tank. Is this normal?

I lost some livestock, my medium ORA Rose Mille colony completely RTN'd but my torts and other milles did fine while my caps all RTN'd. I lost my mandarin and an anthias also.

I test with all Salifert kits.

on 2/10 (tank has been setup 3 weeks at this point):
PO4: < .01ppm
Nitrate: 10ppm
Nitrite: .1ppm

2/12:
PO4: .03ppm
Nitrate: 15ppm
Nitrite: .20ppm

Is this a normal occurance?

[SeanT]

Did you put in any un"cooked" rock?

[elephen]

How'd you guess?

Well I put in 1 small (3x3-4x4 inch) peice of rock to see how well rock cooking really does work and to experience it first hand. It had a tiny bit of diatoms growing on it but none of the cooked rock has any.

Would this affect it and cause the cycle?

[SeanT]

I have read the reports of reefers who have gone barebottom without "cooking" their rock.
The rock shed so much, and isn't siphoned out either enough or frequently enough, and nitrates build.
PUGRoyale experienced this.
That is why I heavily encourage people to "cook" their rock when going BB.
To prevent these problems.
If you do go BB and do NOT "cook" your rock you should siphon at least every other day.
It stinks but that is just how it is.

Sean

[elephen]

It doesn't shed though, I have no detritius what-so-ever on the bottom of the tank or on the rocks.

I'm more or less concerted about the Nitrite, my tank is going through a cycle as if I setup a brand new tank -- although I did.

[Weatherman]

If rock cooking is truly complete, you should see absolutely no increase in ammonia, nitrite or nitrate when you add the rock into your tank. Anything that was dead or decaying should have washed away. This assumes your cooking bin water has approximately the same temperature and specific gravity of the water in your tank. If there is a significant difference, the temperature and specific gravity shock may kill off some animals.

When I set up my 120, I cooked the rock in the tank for six weeks, and skimmed and siphoned out any gunk. I then performed an 80% water change at the end of the cooking period. Immediately after the cooking was over I started to transfer coral from my 180 to my 120.

The only coral I lost was one Montipora digitata and one Acropora. I don’t know exactly why. In both cases it was a slow demise rather than a quick death.

All my Seriatopora, Pavona, Pocillopora and Stylophora not only survived, but thrived in their new environment. The tank has now been running for a year and I've never had a measurable level of nitrate.

[elephen]

Hrm weird... The water temp stayed around 76-80 which is what the tank will do, the tank does 78-80 but I didn't see any problem. Salinity was 1.025.

Not real sure, the rock was cooked good, it did not shed at all when you dunked and swished it and it does not shed at all in the tank, I rarely get piles of detritius, maybe a few particles near the back of the tank but they get taken care of with a quick blast into the turbulent water column.

[three90s&125sump]

I am cooking my rock in my tank. I am only doing small water changes of about 40 to 45 gallons per week. And I am saving a "clean" 45 gallon container of dunk water for the first dunk each time (I'm on my second dunk now). I am also "swishing" (blasting at close range with a MAG36) the rock in the tank. The rock is fresh uncured rock from Fiji. I am getting a disgusting amount of detritus off the rock. AT first I didn't think I was getting much but, after blasting the crap out of it with the MAG36 (which, by the way, is a monster of a pump to handle while running) I can see some real progress. I am not terribly worried about saving any animals on the rock, my main concern is having a complete "purge" of everything out of the rock.

The left tank is the tank I did the blasting in. The other tanks are the holding tanks that the rock will sit on until the next blasting session. All three tanks are plugged into the same sump in the basement, sharing the same skimmer. This is my first attempt at "cooking" rock and I started before this thread did. Let me know if this will work or if I should change my game plan.

[elephen]

Thats a crazy setup...

Well I think I'm getting ready to lose another fish... Posted this thread...

I have a couple of Lyretail Anthias which I have had for a little over 2 years now...
After not observing the male come out to eat this evening I got suspucious because typically he is the first one out when it comes to food...
I grabbed a flashlight since the halides were off (atinics on) and began hunting... Surely enough I found him in his usual hangout but he was very pale and lathargic.
Shortly thereafter I noticed the back of him stick out from the cropping of rock and on his right side about 1/4" behind his gill he has a very large 'bulging' that looks bloody coming out, almost as if he is growing an arm (hah), he is experiencing labored 'breating' if thats what you would call it.
Any ideas whats going on with him, I'm pretty sure by the AM he'll be gone but I want to know what caused it.
Could he of eaten a foreign object that he could not digest/swallow that would be trying to slowly push its way out of him?

[SeanT]

Originally Posted by realhiphop

I started cooking my rock Sat. night. Should I wait until next Saturday to do a water change, or would I be better off doing a water change this Wed. (as you mentioned, bi-weekly for the first few weeks). I checked my tub tonight, and it doesn't look like the cooking has really begun.

Personally, I would do them biweekly from the start.
Since you have committed to this process, the more diligent you are the easier and quicker you will be.
It will take a week or two to begin to see a lot of shedding.
I believe that one of the reasons for this is that the algaes are still dying off and are being processed by the bacteria.

Sean

[menelaus22]

I have a ton of zoanthids that have grown over my rocks. If I do a 1 month cook, do you think they'll die off and cause an even more prolonged cooking cycle?

[redwinger]

Unfortunatelly one month is not going to cut it with cooking rock. IME 2 months is the minimum. I would plan on a three months minimum and try to get rid of all zoas before you start to cook the rock.