Care to enlighten me? (cooking LR)

[Beverly]

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

Interesting subject.

I bought some LR from the lfs over a year ago. Scrubbed it a bit in changewater to remove obvious dead stuff and hair-type algae from sitting in the lfs's tank. Then I cured it in a container other than my display tanks to make sure very little of the detritus and nitrate/phosphate from the rock went into the displays. I sort of followed the "rock cooking" proceedure, with the swishing and water changes, though the curing tank was always subject to ambient kitchen daylight.

Once cured, and it went into two upgraded tanks with rock cured a year or two year before from the old tanks.

Wasn't paying very close attention to the chemistry of these two tanks until about 8 months ago. Even then, tank chemistry attention was a sporadic, if well-meant, gesture to the two tanks. There were weeks where I would dose kalk nightly, then weeks when I wouldn't. Coralline growth during this time was good.

Low Ca levels were not an issue when I dosed kalk, so I test and adust Ca infrequently. However, once I started paying closer attention to alk and Mg levels, and religiously dosing kalk nightly, various macroalgae begin to grow and coralline growth is beginning to explode. I now have halimeda sprouting out of two rocks that showed no inclination toward decorative algae growth for months and months previously.

I'm quite thrilled that halimeda has grown from these rocks It looks beautiful, and makes me want to find a way to pay closer attention to the chemistry of these two and my third tank without too much hassle. Am going to begin daily dosing of alk booster as well as Mg and keep records of what I dose and when. Will also keep a less close eye on Ca, but figure once I get the alk and Mg levels stable, Ca will probably require more attention. I will also begin testing intermittently and record these results as well, so I can tell if my daily dosing is maintaining alk, Mg and Ca at the right levels.

Anyway, no matter how dead LR looks due to its horrible trip from its home in the ocean, with the right care, it will surely come alive.

Just, please, do not pressure wash it with freshwater Of course, that's just my two cents.