Rock Cooking Critter Question

[Mizer67]

I am 1 week into cooking 41 pounds of live rock that is going into my 29 Biocube and maybe a ten gallon for my daughter. The rock came from another guys tank and has tons of hitchhikers. Pods, lots of small shrimp looking critters (mysis maybe?) and tonight I found 2 tiny stars that look like brittle stars or serpent stars. The bodies were maybe 1/8" and the arms maybe 1" - 1-1/4" across. I have been trying to rescue and transfer as many critters back into the "clean" bin after I swish / dunk. They seem to be growing / multiplying because when I first got the rock I only found barely visible stuff, tonight some of the shrimp were close to 3/8" and easily visible. I was thinking that maybe rescuing them is a mistake because they will die off as they get old and release nutrients.
Am I doing good by trying to boost my microfauna or am I slowing down the cook by leaving a potential nutrient source (dead critters)?
Thanks.

[fuzzybob4]

y do you want too cook the rock?

[Mizer67]

Cooking is an expression. Has nothing to do with heat. You keep it in the dark with good circulation. The algae dies back and makes the bacteria eat the phosphate in the rock. This helps prevent algae problems after the tank is up and running.

[gwaco]

i wouldn't worry about the critters . if you want to save them that is fine . unless you have thousands of them , die off from them will not affect anything .
also cooking will most likely not kill all of them off anyways . populations will increase or decrease naturally depending on how much food is available.

[HD Fatboy®]

Originally Posted by Mizer67

I am 1 week into cooking 41 pounds of live rock that is going into my 29 Biocube and maybe a ten gallon for my daughter. The rock came from another guys tank and has tons of hitchhikers. Pods, lots of small shrimp looking critters (mysis maybe?) and tonight I found 2 tiny stars that look like brittle stars or serpent stars. The bodies were maybe 1/8" and the arms maybe 1" - 1-1/4" across. I have been trying to rescue and transfer as many critters back into the "clean" bin after I swish / dunk. They seem to be growing / multiplying because when I first got the rock I only found barely visible stuff, tonight some of the shrimp were close to 3/8" and easily visible. I was thinking that maybe rescuing them is a mistake because they will die off as they get old and release nutrients.
Am I doing good by trying to boost my microfauna or am I slowing down the cook by leaving a potential nutrient source (dead critters)?
Thanks.

Are you doing lots of water changes during the cook?

[Mizer67]

Did the first change at 6 days. Swished a little at 3 and didn't see any real detritus so didn't bother. At day 6 there was plenty so I think it was just slow getting started. I brought it home submerged in a rubbermaid tote, so there was no die off initially. Now I think the cook has started si I'll check it every few days.

[Hop]

I had tons of stuff make it through the process and I cooked my last batch about 16 weeks. You will be fine I suspect

[Mizer67]

Thanks to all.