questions about cooking like rock oh and starboard too

[jdav]

first post so.... let me say this forum is awesome. ton of info and more laid back than most.

here's the questions....

first im getting a 75 on thursday or friday and plan on it being a bb sps reef... tunze, euroreef, t5s i already have all the gear i just wanna ask a few things about cooking rock.

ok, i really could care less about coralline. the tank i have now has too much light and it won't spread anyways so that's a non issue, but do you HAVE to use live rock since all you are tying to do is get rid of all the algaes and be bacteria reliant or can you just use base rock and seed it in the dark holding tank where all the garbage ends up? or can you just put it into the tank and let it seed that way? if it has to be "live rock" it's okay i just wanted to know if i could speed the process up a lil bit because i always put 3 or 4 lbs per gallon of rock in all the tanks i've ever set up and there isn't anywhere i can think of to hold that much rock without it being a hassel.

and the other thing is; what if one of my colonies has already encrusted to a rock before i buy it, or what if it's encrusted in my other tank already? am i just gonna have to get all frags and start from there or is it okay to have minimal "uncooked" rock in the tank?

ok now this starboard stuff, i am i going to need to silicon it around the edges if i decide to lay some out in the tank or how does that work?

i know those are probably some elementary qestions, but i just wanna make sure if i do it i do it right.

tia for any help!

[Viv]

First I'd like to say Hi, so Hi!
I'm sure lots will answer but I'll give you my view, its definately not the only one though, so I'd wait to see what others say also.

As far as the rock goes, well, I think you could do any of the above. Most probably cook the rock according to the "How to cook your Rock" thread in this forum...worth reading. But yes you can cook rock in the tank itself also...except that could prove a little difficult 'cause you'll want no light to hit the water the rock is cooking in, but you could always place black garbage bags around the tank to block out the light....my rock doesn't really have coralline algae, but I did cook it per the instructions to purge the rock of all the crud. If you do cook the rock, I wouldn't put rocks with corals that have encrusted the rock in the cooker-especially if you love them, they may, I would think probably die. You could always add them to the BB when its set up and parameters are correct...they'll (the rock around the encrusted coral ) probably purge some of the crud in them in the beginning which then can easily be siphoned up.

Some people silicone the Starboard, some don't...it does float! The rock will hold it down. Some say its a great place for pods to nest...
I found a lot of detrius under mine and ended up taking the board out-but if a rock hits the bottom glass just right I'll no longer have a tank as the glass will crack, and there she goes...
Some people have made epoxy bases, some have glued down sand to the starboard....its a matter of preference I think...but wait for some more replys-great people here and congrats on your 1st post

[Loverotties]

Welcome to TRT!

[Leonardo's Reef]

Welcome Jdav!

I would definately start with some LR, and cook this together with the baserock. In this process the baserock will be seeded with the organisms from the LR, and all the phosphates in the baserock and LR will be "worked out". Like Viv suggested, read the thread about "Cooking Live-Rock"

About the Starboard. When I started my tank I started with Starboard. I did not silliconed it.
Because Starboard leaks Phosphates for some weeks, there will grow brownish algae on it. This is only temporary.

I did take my starboard out. Why? After some months it was starting to get covered in Coralline algae. Mostly in the shaded areas. I like a clean look, therefore I didnīt like it.
After I took it out Iwas surprised about the amount of crap that was under there just after a few months. No starboard for me anymore. It does protect your glass from falling rocks, but because of my Aquascaping, that is impossible.

Silliconing Starboard wonīt work (well). The sillicone does not strongly attach to the Starboard. If the seal breaks, you get an anaerobe situation under there, and you donīt want that.

This are just my experiences, there are many more people here with more expertise

Good luck,

Leonardo

[Esper]

yes, crud can get under there, but I have never had problems because of it (probably because of the number of bristleworms that were under there as well). if you never remove your starboard then you will never see it, and it will never bother you in my mind the protection from rocks is worth it. like others mentioned it will go through its own algae cycle process, my first tank had a diatom bloom and then nothing but coralline; the second one had diatoms, cyano, a nice mat of hair algae, and then nothing but coralline. this tank did not have a skimmer, though. good luck!

[Spanky]

jdav, welcome to the forum where a lot of people are running around with bare bottoms. - I could not help that!

About your rock. Actually using live rock will speed up the process for you.
Dead base rock will be loaded with a lot more phosphate. You will have to wait a long time for the bacteria to get established. And then wait for them to start migrating it out of the rock for you.
If you pick light porous rock, you do not need much rock at all in a BB system. Remember, you are relying on getting it to the skimmer and the skimmer taking it out. A lot of rock can actually get in the way of that.

I still don't see the reasoning for being worried about a paper thin layer of detritus under Starboard. Not only is it just a small amount - you rock has a whole lot more - but it's not even in circulation with the water. Even if it was a ton, it's still sealed off except for just what's around the edge of the Starboard.

Good luck with your tank. Keeping posting and telling us about it!