Cooking and Curing Rock....

[asylumdown]

why is there so much die-off? Wasn't this rock live from a tank? Did it spend too much time out of water?

And that crap on the top looks like a very, very serious case of what develops on the surface of ponds when they've got a water fall and too many dissolved organic compounds. Was it foamy or was is gelatinous?

If it was gelatinous, it was probably a biofilm of bacteria, if t's foamy, it's DOC froth, much like the foam that collects in your skimmer cup. In either case, a strong indication of decomposition

[asylumdown]

PS, you're going through all sorts of trouble sterilizing and preparing a bunch of other rock, why not do the same with this stuff? Aren't you just risking introducing pest algae to your pristinely cleaned new rock when you put them in a tank with this stuff?

[hfp75]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

why is there so much die-off? Wasn't this rock live from a tank? Did it spend too much time out of water?

It was from a tank but it sat outside for a few hours before I got it so there is going to be a lot of die off.

Originally Posted by Wheelman76

That's what I was thinking , even just adding water from your tank to the rock can introduce spores of all kinds of different things.

My tank is pretty clean..... my old water going in with the rock will only help keep it alive. If I put the cured live rock back into my tank then thats a possibly. Its in the dark now so theoretically algae can't grow. Slowly I should be able to kill most of it / wash away most of it with water changes.

Originally Posted by Myka

That white stuff is mold. There is still a lot of organics rotting inside that rock. It will take awhile for all the organics to leech out.

I thought it might be mold unless there was some other weird chemical relationship that was happening... I am not a chemist..... mold it is.....

I am thinking it will be a few weeks until its cured.....

[StirCrazy]

lot of work, but nothing you have done is what is referred to as "cooking" live rock, you just acid washed it, bleached it and are curing it.

but good description of what you did.

Steve

[hfp75]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

lot of work, but nothing you have done is what is referred to as "cooking" live rock, you just acid washed it, bleached it and are curing it.

Well, online there are a few different positions that are all described as cooking and curing..... there is definitely some overlap when it comes to the final goal.

I am by no means done yet. The acid wash was to remove PO4 on the outside of the rock & the bleach to kill everything. Then I'll start it cycling and changing water to try to remove bound nutrients.

For my rock thats in the tank water already this process has also just started and we will see how it ends up. There are more water changes on the horizon...

Since I'm not cooking it, what to you is cooking your rock and don't try to convince me to put it in the oven....

[Starry]

Myka wrote a good write up on cooking live rock.
See here:

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=44859

[hfp75]

Thought I'd post a little update...

Thanks for the information from the other threads. My endevours are not yet complete....

Bucket that is curing... Doing well, no fowl smells & no more mold on top. I have been dumping the water and replacing it with my old tank water whenever I do a water change. Most of the visible algae is gone, just a bit of green hair..... its still in the dark with a heater, power head & an air stone. I put in 4 small crabs to start munching on whatever is edible in there. I'll be doing a water change tonight so I will see how its looking farther down towards the bottom of the bucket as well as the parameters.

Cleaning and cooking rock... As you initially saw I dunked it all into a Muratic Acid / water bath. Then the rock was subjected to two soaks in a bleach bucket. First soak was 2 cups of bleach and 2-3 days, followed by a rinse and another 2 cups with another 2-3 days of soaking time, then it was rinsed and soaked in water for about 5 days. No more bleach smell and it all came out onto my table top.

(I'll probably need to run a dechlorinator when I start it in a new tank due to the possibility of residual bleach)

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps09156610.jpg

I have now started the same process for the second batch of rock.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps217a3611.jpg

It'll take a few days but by the end of the month it'll be complete.

Once its all done then the rock is ready to start cooking.

I will have to decide if the rock I am 'curing' is going to be clean enough to run in a tank or if it will need the acid / bleach / cooking treatment first. We will wait and see.

[hfp75]

So, little update....

August 10....

For the rock that was curing I have been regularly changing the water out with my old tank water. My tanks params are usually about P04 <.1 and NO3 of 20-50 depending on my last water change. Initially My air stone wasn’t working right so it had a bit of a fowl smell (aerobic vs anaerobic) - but burning NO3, the initial PO4 after soaking with this rock was 1.0 !!!!

After changing the airstone out for one that worked the fowl smell has gone away and and after a few water changes my saturation on PO4 is 0.5 so, we are on the way. There is no visible algae on any of this rock any more. It has been under a black thick garbage bag - no light.

For the rock that I cleaned and an going to bake.... it has all been acid washed and bleached. It has also been dried and is just waiting in boxes....