need otty's recipe for burning live rock

dbyrd · 06-21-2008, 01:28 PM

i know its been a while since i last posted but my aquarium kind of got put on the back burner while i tried to complete some other projects. anyway i want to start my aquarium over from scratch as it has went to h#$% and is no longer something nice to look at. the aquarium is covered in algae of every variety, luckily i gave all the inhabitants to a friend before the tank got too bad for livestock. i did keep some of my hermits and snails hoping they would kind of keep the tank a little clean. the water parameters are rediculously high and hasnt had a water change in over six months. i am ready to bring my once nice tank back to life. i want to start from scratch and this time do a fowlr. i do not trust using my rock the way it is and i remember reading on here about burning live rock, i have searched the threads and cannot seem to find the "recipe". if anyone knows i would greatly appreciate some input. i am planning to buy some nice live rock to seed my old rock with once it is clean. thanks in advance for the help.

inwall75 · 06-21-2008, 02:00 PM

I suspect that this is what you are looking for.

Newbie Rock Question

I have cooked rock before but it is definately a long-term procedure. I've also simply tossed rock onto the back deck and let sunlight bake it for a couple of weeks. Otty soaks his in bleach for a while to get the rock sterile. I've done this and it's quite effective. Tangster and Amcarrig use bleach too if I'm not mistaken.

Zectra · 06-21-2008, 02:02 PM

+1 on bleach. I've done it, I've also boiled mine. Works fine if you are starting over.

ReefSparky · 06-21-2008, 02:11 PM

The term I remember used was cooking the LR. I can't remember the exact procedure, but I remember the scenario because it makes lots of sense. Here's what I recall. I think you'll be ok if you follow the basic principles.

The process of "cooking" the rock, as some call it, involves no heat. The LR is placed in a bucket, or rubbermaid container in total darkness, just a few pieces at a time, while maintaining water flow; as would be the case in a sump or wet/dry filter. The rock casts off copious amounts of garbage such as nitrates and phosphates, and other solid components that were clogging the pores of the rock. The darkness supposedly chokes off the photosynthetic algae, and the water flow keeps alive the beneficial bacteria that serve as biological filtration for the tank. Because of the supposed tons of garbage that comes out of the rock, you can't do this in a sump or wet/dry.

At the end of the process the LR is supposed to be amazingly clean.

Because of the amounts of compounds thrown off by the rock, the water must be changed often, (maybe every few days) to maintain clarity. The water must be salt water, as it keeps alive the bacteria. Treat it just as if it were a display tank regarding water quality and water movement/turnover; with the difference being that the LR must be kept in total darkness.

Again, I don't recall exactly how this was done, but if you stick to the guidelines outlined above, I think you'll achieve what you're looking for.

By the way, boiling or using bleach as Zectra and inwall mention also works, but the rock loses all its "live rock" qualities, and must be turned again into LR by placing in a tank with other LR, or live sand, or some seeding product like Prime, etc.

There are pros and cons to both. The former is very time consuming, but produces amazing results tantamount to newly cured LR. The latter kills everything, but takes you back to square one. I also think I remember reading that bleach won't remove phosphate from LR, either.

Good luck, and please let us all know how this goes!!

inwall75 · 06-21-2008, 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ReefSparky

The term I remember used was cooking the LR. I can't remember the exact procedure, but I remember the scenario because it makes lots of sense. Here's what I recall. I think you'll be ok if you follow the basic principles.

The process of "cooking" the rock, as some call it, involves no heat. The LR is placed in a bucket, or rubbermaid container in total darkness, just a few pieces at a time, while maintaining water flow; as would be the case in a sump or wet/dry filter. The rock casts of its "puke" that was clogging the pores of the rock. The darkness supposedly chokes off the photosynthetic algae, and the water flow keeps alive the beneficial bacteria that serve as biological filtration for the tank. Because of the supposed tons of garbage that comes out of the rock, you can't do this in a sump or wet/dry.

At the end of the process the LR is supposed to be amazingly clean.

Because of the amounts of compounds thrown off by the rock, the water must be changed often to maintain clarity. Treat it just as if it were a display tank regarding water quality and water movement/turnover; with the difference being that the LR must be kept in total darkness.

If you have a spare protein skimmer, that's good to use too. Before a 100% waterchange, you also want to either use a dunking motion to loosen detritus/dieing algae or hit it hard with a protein skimmer. Many people just use a second bucket, do the dunking and swishing in the old water and just move the rock to the new bucket.

vegasfish · 06-21-2008, 02:58 PM

When I purchased my rock used I used the bleach method as recomended on this site and I have had no problems.

Daniel072 · 06-21-2008, 04:23 PM

ok here's how I cook my rock. I first take a container and fill it with SW. I also get 3 buckets and fill them with sw as well. I take the first rock, swish it in the 3 buckets in order and place it in the container. the reason I use 3 buckets is this: by the time you get to the 3rd the rock is pretty clean. I make sure I have really good flow and temp in the container that I'm cooking the rock in. I do a 100 percent water change every 3 days and I use the 3 buckets once per week. I would recommed cooking the rock like this for about 6 months to make sure every ounce of algae has died off and you have perfectly clean rock. Any thing shorter than this would just be a really long curing process.

NU-2reef · 06-22-2008, 10:23 AM

Heres a method that Bmshehan posted on one of my threads this worked great!!!

3 days 50/50 bleach water
3 days freshwater soak (i do a water change every day, probably unnecessary but can't hurt!)
3 days 2 lbs. baking soda soak
3 weeks drying out
absolutely no need in throwing this rock away, unless you want to throw it my way! once the rock is completely dry, simply dump it in your tank. if you have any more questions, ask otty or tangster, they know the routine

dbyrd · 06-22-2008, 01:05 PM

thanks for the help guys i knew that otty and tangster had wrote in a post about bleaching the rock. i do not wanna just throw the rock out and thought that if i bleached the rock i wouldn't have any problems induced by bad rock. my nitrates always seemed to stay fairly high when my tank was at its best (20-40) and i am thinking that maybe it was from the live rock the whole time.

Otty · 06-22-2008, 02:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NU-2reef

3 days 50/50 bleach water
3 days freshwater soak (i do a water change every day, probably unnecessary but can't hurt!)
3 days 2 lbs. baking soda soak
3 weeks drying out

That is it. I would rinse the rock between each step in a bucket of RO/DI water (just submerge it). I don't change the water out on the FW soak and also on the last soak with Baking Soda (I used 4lbs for 200lb+ of rock) you need to make sure it is RO/DI water.
The drying time can be sped up if you put a fan on the rock say in your garage and rotate the rock EVERY day to make sure there is no water hiding in a hole. It is best to set it out in the sun to dry as long as you bring it in before the rain falls. If you can keep it outside then it will only take less then 2 weeks to dry.