cooking liverock

[Blenny1988]

Hey all

Have any of you cooked your live rock? if so how long did you cook it? most i have ever cooked live rock for was 3 months and no issues at all but i would like to know if theirs a max or min time scale?

 

[BeltedCoyote]

By cooking do you mean curing live rock?

 

[Blenny1988]

By cooking do you mean curing live rock?

i guess so lol you may be able to put me right then so basically i put my live rock in a cool box with a heater and pump init with salt water i put the lid on the cool box and leave it!! hope this makes sense lol

 

[KStatefan]

Why do people continue to call it cooking live rock?

 

[Blenny1988]

Why do people continue to call it cooking live rock?

i guess i haven't moved with the times lol

 

[BeltedCoyote]

i guess so lol you may be able to put me right then so basically i put my live rock in a cool box with a heater and pump init with salt water i put the lid on the cool box and leave it!! hope this makes sense lol

That’s what I thought you might have meant. Curing it in other words. Just was worried because I see “cooking” and my mind jumps to boiling the rocks which is.....not ideal lol

 

[Blenny1988]

i have known of people taking the (cooking) live rock literally and sticking i in there ovens or boiling it. I however have not been one of them i searched forums a few years back ( cant remember what ones now) and learnt what was meant by cooking well at least i thought i had lol

 

[Blenny1988]

so ok Curing is there a min or max time line at all?

 

[Willis19]

Why not?

 

[CMMorgan]

I thought you were offering a suggestion for @Dolphin2409 and his Bobbit worm. I was picturing a cremated rock. LOL
I don't think you can cure rock too long. Curing it until it's cycled is a good start to getting your tank going if you have time to kill while you are doing the rest of the build.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Cooking or boiling I don’t recommend as there are crevices and holes which offer harmful gases and/or toxins in the process.
Bleach and water are sufficient followed by sun drying to cure the rock

 

[Blenny1988]

so maybe 3 months was OTT lol however i seemed to have been lucky and got away with it on that occasion lol

 

[Willis19]

I thought you were offering a suggestion for @Dolphin2409 and his Bobbit worm. I was picturing a cremated rock. LOL
I don't think you can cure rock too long. Curing it until it's cycled is a good start to getting your tank going if you have time to kill while you are doing the rest of the build.

does it helps to prevent the ugly phase in new tanks?

 

[Blenny1988]

Cooking or boiling I don’t recommend as there are crevices and holes which offer harmful gases and/or toxins in the process.
Bleach and water are sufficient followed by sun drying to cure the rock

thank you i would be worried that i would mess up using bleach lol i suppose letting it sun dry it would be a case of depending on how big your piece is as to how long you need to leave it to dry?

 

[vetteguy53081]

thank you i would be worried that i would mess up using bleach lol i suppose letting it sun dry it would be a case of depending on how big your piece is as to how long you need to leave it to dry?

Cold water rinse after bleaching which neutralizes bleach prior to sun drying

 

[CMMorgan]

does it helps to prevent the ugly phase in new tanks?

I don't think anything eliminates the uglies entirely.... but it makes the tank safe for inhabitants faster if you are starting it with cured live rock. It also gives you a chance to identify and remove most of the hitchhikers that may have come with the rock if it wasn't dry (dead) white rock when you started.

 

[Blenny1988]

Thank you vetteguy so could this method even be adopted for dry rock that say had been left on a shelf i mean obviously you would want to atleast rinse any dust particalls off and would RO/DI water be best for the rinsing?

 

[Blenny1988]

I don't think anything eliminates the uglies entirely.... but it makes the tank safe for inhabitants faster if you are starting it with cured live rock. It also gives you a chance to identify and remove most of the hitchhikers that may have come with the rock if it wasn't dry (dead) white rock when you started.

i suppose the uglies are just all part and parcel of the cycling processes??

 

[OldSchool Reefer]

i guess so lol you may be able to put me right then so basically i put my live rock in a cool box with a heater and pump init with salt water i put the lid on the cool box and leave it!! hope this makes sense lol

I have been thinking of this for a few days now as I am in the middle of a renovation of a 15 Yo tank. There is a difference between cooking and curing your live rock.

Way back when, when importation of LR was legal and prevalent LR was shipped all over the world dry or just damp packed in news paper and subsequently had significant die off. Curing meant that it was returned to salt water with frequent water changes and cycled until all dead life was shed off and it no longer was producing nitrates.

Cooking came about when old rock that was fully cured was suspect of being a nutrient sink loaded with food for nuisance algae to thrive off of. The thought was that if the rock was kept in the dark with healthy flow for months that the algae would starve off and the remaining life (pods and worms) would consume and or force out the detritus and nutrients freeing the nutrient sink of nitrates and phosphates.

Has anyone used Continuum Bacter Clean•M? It seems like it is using a heavy dose of bacteria to out compete nuisance algae and drive out detritus bound up in a bacterial sludge coating the LR surfaces similar to the desired results of cooking the rock.

 

[Sailingeric]

I usually cook at 350, 20 per pound, baste every 15 minutes.