Care to enlighten me? (cooking LR)

[StirCrazy]

[quote=untamed]

Live rock is merely rock that is loaded with bacteria.[\quote]

That's one opinion, but maybe there should be different terms to describe Live Rock. I propose that be called "filtration rock", not "live rock"....or call it "live rock" and other stuff "real life rock"....Whatever, but they are very different things and need to be handled differently..

If you read more than the first sentence in my post I went on to say that worms, pods, ect..... is kept alive during the cooking process. so it definitely is live rock.

here is a quote for the definition of live rock "The term live rock refers to coral rubble colonized by marine organisms and cleaned to reef tank use. Its most important characteristics are porosity, origin, cleanliness, and what grows upon it"

So as for what grows apon it, it goes further to say that care full handling and cleaning remove most algae before we get it, as this is undesirable to put in a new reef tank.. I know every body likes different things in the rock, for instance I like bare rock with only Coraline on it and critters, but no plant life. where some one else might hate worms but like Halimeda, but lest not argue about what live rock is as it has been defined and that definition will never change. personally after losing my tank to calurpa I will ensure there is no algae on any rock I get, others might not care, but cooking is no more than a way to "unclog" the rock and kill of any plant life.

Originally Posted by untamed

I don't think it is legal to harvest rock anywhere anymore. It shouldn't be, anyway. Certainly, no one should purchase anything but aquacultured rock these days. I would like to see the LFS produce more documentation on how the rock that they sell was obtained. I doubt the industry is very regulated in places like Vanuuatu (sp?)..

It is legal and it should be. although they cannot blow up reefs for rock anymore (which I never agreed with) they can harvest storm damage and thats what they do. If you can find some one locally that is selling aqua cultured rock I will be amazed and if you do, tell me so I will stay away from that. Aqua cultured is about 2to 5 times more heavy, as it is blasted lime rock put into the water, does pour job at filtering compared to real live rock and probably has about 1/10 of the "bug" life on it.. but you will be happy to know it will still come with lots of algae I remember seeing some about 2 or 3 years ago but store owners won't keep ordering an inferior product that won't sell.

Originally Posted by untamed

[Regardless, it is my experience that the rock sold by most LFS has endured such a trip that it has mostly died anyway.

Weird, every time I have bought rock it was loaded with critters.. what is this death you speak of. If you are talking about no algae on it well personally this is a good thing as you are not introducing an organism that under the right conditions will take over your tank. I have had lots of rocks that with in a couple weeks of being in my tank have started to grow sponges, feather dusters, etc so either you are looking at a isolated case or the place you keep looking at isn't to worried about keeping it nice.

[untamed]

I admit that I have a non-popular opinion about Live rock. My tank does look a little more "untamed" than most people's tanks. That is mostly because of the LR that I obtained got into the tank with a rush trip straight from ocean to my tank.

I find the life on/in the rock itself so interesting that I would consider running a tank full of it without any fish at all.

It's kind of like comparing a garden to a forest. Gardens are beautiful, but carefully controlled/managed, while forests have a wildness that makes them attractive. I'm attempting to make a natural looking tank, not a controlled garden.

I agree that aquacultured LR might not be as good as naturally produced LR (density/porosity), but I can't justify what is happening to coral reefs worldwide when the aquacultured product does the job adequately. If reefs are broken by storms, I still think the broken pieces should be allowed to remain in place where they could continue to survive..not removed from the ocean.

[fkshiu]

There's a school of thought that the harvesting of live rock from the wild (done in a sustainable way) is actually more beneficial to wild reefs in the long run.

The thinking is that since the locals know they can make money off of the reef, it's in their best interest to keep it around. Put another way, if they weren't collecting the live rock for the ornamental aquarium industry, they would probably be blasting it and dredging it for "development".

That's how it works in a capitalist economy - money talks and if you can convince people that preservation of the environment is profitable, then they are far more likely to want to preserve it.

The whole idea of tourism is based on the same principle.

[untamed]

I agree with the economic viewpoint. Make the harvest sustainable...and make sure that the price reflects the true value of the renewable resource.

Unfortunately, reefs of the world are not thriving or expanding. I believe that they are shrinking at a concerning rate. LR harvesting isn't the main/only cause, but as long as the resource is declining any harvesting should be very tightly controlled. I'm just worried that places like Vanuuatu don't have the controls in place that they should.

When I first started a marine tank, I was able to get wild Florida LR easily. Florida put a stop to that since that time.

As I said earlier, I would just like the LFS to provide a LOT more explanation about the sources of their LR to reassure me that I was part of the solution and not part of the problem.

[Boomboy]

um ok stop hijacking this thread its about cooking live rock. and i still think you dont understand what it does. it doesnt kill of the bacteria it just kills of plant life and anything stuck in the rock. so it doesnt make it not live rock anymore it makes is "charged live rock" all the use of live rock but with out all the dead stuff in the rock.

[marie]

Originally Posted by Boomboy

um ok stop hijacking this thread its about cooking live rock. .

It's ok, they stopped hijacking this thread nearly 2 years ago