Cooking rock....

[Jflip2002]

Alright, so to cook live rock, I know the routine..... I read the article a while back. But I have a new question....

Can I cook rock in just RO/DI water, thats not salt? I know it wont be "live" anymore, but would it still be cooked? Im fine with it basically becoming base rock, I had some cooked Live rock to seed it anyhow.

It'd be too expensive for me to keep using salt water I think, so I wont be able to fully cook it that way. But if I can use regular RO/DI water, I think I can get it fully cooked, and I may be better off.

Overall, its my fault. I fell behind on my water changes for a good couple months, and I started to get hair algae. Even on my FSB, I have hair algae. I just may go back to a DSB, rather than my FSB BB tank. Especially since my MJ mod keeps breaking on me. If this 5 minute epoxy doesnt hold up, Im going to really call it quits on the BB.

[Ronjunior]

After reading up on using hypo salinity, I would think not. It's recommended to lower slowly or you'll kill off the nitrifying bacteria you need in the tank. I would assume just using plain water would do you no good for bacteria growth. For sure you'd kill off the micro fauna, pods, etc. My thought is putting it back into your tank after ro/di only, it would just cause another algae cycle.

[Hop]

If you want to make base rock, set it outside for a few months... Then rinse it several times and then cook it in FW... Less smell, less trouble IMO.

I'm not sure why it would get expensive to keep it in SW... You are filling it up once and then doing maybe 1-2 waterchanges over several months... This way you don't kill everything and won't have to get some new live rock to reseed the tank and no risk of new, unwanted hitchhikers.

[Fly Guy]

no....plain ro/di wont work. thwe whole process is based on turning an algael dirven biological system into a bacterial. without the live bacteria, it doesnt "cook". and once the cooking gets going you do want to do a 100% water change every week or two. you are disposing of the phosphates every time you change the wter and remove the bacterial flock. you dont want it to sit in this water....you want it fresh and clean so the bacteria can keep turgoring the P out, instead of absorbing back any of what it has already disposed of

[Jflip2002]

I dont necessarily want to make base rock. I basically want to get the rock out of ht elight to stop the algae growth. And also keep changing the water to rinse out all the detritus. And there will be a lot more water changes than you said. When I cooked it the first time, it was being cooked for 5 months, with a WC every week.

Letting the base rock dry out would just be an unneccessary step, and take longer it seems. Maybe I will keep it in the tub for a few weeks til the algae is gone, then just throw it back in the tank, and keep up on my water changes, or maybe be excessive with em.

[Hop]

Guess this statement threw me off

I know it wont be "live" anymore, but would it still be cooked? Im fine with it basically becoming base rock, I had some cooked Live rock to seed it anyhow.

[Jflip2002]

Originally Posted by Fly Guy

no....plain ro/di wont work. thwe whole process is based on turning an algael dirven biological system into a bacterial. without the live bacteria, it doesnt "cook". and once the cooking gets going you do want to do a 100% water change every week or two. you are siposing of the phosphates every time you change the wter and remove the bacterial clock

Crappy, kinda what I was thinking. I may just throw it in a dark tub for a while then til my algae receeds. Its not much algae, but it is becoming a thick green slimey looking coat. The same with my FSB.

[Hop]

Originally Posted by Fly Guy

no....plain ro/di wont work. thwe whole process is based on turning an algael dirven biological system into a bacterial. without the live bacteria, it doesnt "cook". and once the cooking gets going you do want to do a 100% water change every week or two. you are disposing of the phosphates every time you change the wter and remove the bacterial flock. you dont want it to sit in this water....you want it fresh and clean so the rock bacteria can keep turgoring it out, instead of absorbing back any of what it has purged out

Interesting. I always thought you let it go for about a month, do a 100% waterchange and then measure from there. Goes to show you that I don't retain information that is not immediately relevant to my current situation I need a bigger hard drive or more ram in my head

[Fly Guy]

Originally Posted by Hop

Interesting. I always thought you let it go for about a month, do a 100% waterchange and then measure from there. Goes to show you that I don't retain information that is not immediately relevant to my current situation I need a bigger hard drive or more ram in my head

IME of several batches...and another as we speak(Marco rock).........i would agree that for the first few weeks it doesnt matter so much. as it really doesnt start doing its thing until about that point. this is of course relevant to how dirty your rock was in the first place........

if not loaded with crap to begin with...then I dont think you need to stazrt doing your 100% water changes and violent scrubbing/swishing until 3-4 weeks.......if it is just super dirty rock and is loaded......i think you are better off scrubbing and changing water the entire time as you need to get that crap out of the way

Another thing I keep hearing people say a lot lately, especially with so many people buying base rock from Marco and similar, is that they get the rock and "cook" it for a month or two. They arent cooking anything. You cant cook what isnt seeded with bacteria that is not to say it doenst still need cured and seeded......but i dont think any real cooking can start even happening with that rock for several months or better put.....when its already seeded enough to do so

[crvz]

Yep, like others have said, if you put it in RO/DI i think the bacteria will die of and then won't shove the crap out of the rock. So while, by moving it out of the light may kill of whatever algae there is on the rock, it will probably just come back once you put it back in the tank. You're better off just killing the light on the tank for a few months if you don't have any corals. Just do fewer water changes than normal for rock-cooking. It'll take longer, but I think you'd be better off.

[VWD]

If I was going to do that , I would use tap water with bleach for a few days then soak and rinse in fresh tap with a chlorine remover and then air dry. You can do it faster this way and kill off everything

[Jflip2002]

Oh ok, so the poo doesnt get pushed out just by the clean water and lack of light. Its the bacteria which does all of this, and no salt means no bacteria. I suppose I shoulda read the sticky again, because I didnt remember that. That sucks, I suppose its time for some real cooking again once I get an RODI machine.

[Jflip2002]

So I guess Im gonna skip the cooking I came to conclude this afternoon. Im just gonna keep doing some crazy water changes, including a 100% change upcoming. I think the cause of this problem is just my poor flow. I have tons of flow, just poorly placed flow. I used my MJ1200 mod to blow offf all the rocks, and TONS of detritus came flying out of them. So obviously this is contributing to my beginning of an algae problem.

Is it possible that crappy MH bulbs could help contribute to my algae problem also? Kinda curious with that.

[DarthOcellaris]

You don't need all that much water...i found that I can cook my rock in as little as 15 - 20 gallons of water. doing a 100% water change weekly, that turns out to be the same as a normal water change for me with the display tank.

Just slap all your rock in a large trash can, toss in a heater and good power head, put the lid on the can and just visit it once a week.

I'd also suggest scrubbing the rock before you start cooking it.