How to clean/kill the live rock of pests?

[LongIslandAndy]

I have to be honest before I started cooking rocks, my wife would have me institutionalized
After being in this hobby for over 30 years, the advice that some people give is incredible. Nowhere, do you actually cook your rocks in RO, TAP WATER or battery acid.
I have attached a thread that will explain what cooking you rock really is aimed at doing and how to do it

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=437342

Have fun

 

[richardhmc]

argghhh this is confusing. There was another thread posted up by EintheC about rock cooking here.
http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/general-discussion/86994-barebottom-rock-cooking-3.html

and in that thread, someone posted a thing from reefbuilders
http://reefbuilders.com/2010/10/16/blast-polarazing-hobby-trends-influenced-reeff/

That says:
?Rock cooking?- A great example of ?viral stupidity? perpetuated by means of the Internet. Some incompetent hobbyist?s tank ?crashed? into a mass of scunge and algae, so he went on line blaming live rock and sand for his woes. It had to be the rock and sand, because he was allegedly really experienced! ALL aquariums with live rock and sand were viewed as ?time bombs? waiting for the great apocalypse. It launched a vitriolic hatred towards use of live rock and sand in reef systems, and suddenly you were advised to remove all of the sand from your tank, and to take your live rock and scrub it with a stiff brush and ?swish it? in water until it rinsed ?clean?. Then, in an ultimate act of stupidity, you were supposed to ?cook? your rock by placing it in a darkened container of saltwater for months, essentially killing all photosynthetic life (both good and bad) on the rock. This supposedly helped to ?eliminate detritus and phosphates?, and then you?d place this barren rock back into your display aquarium (without sand, of course), to start the process all over again. Loyalists to this ?technique? proffered detailed ?instructions? for neophytes on a certain hobby message board, and a lot of criticism towards those who wouldn?t embrace this stupidly perverted form of ?hyper husbandry?. I?m not sure what was worse- the concept or the attitude! Of course, if these guys would have simply learned how to manage an aquarium in the first place, they wouldn?t have had to create this stupid concept!

What do I do... LOL

 

[armani4o3]

why not just trash the bad rock and get new stuff less of a pita. I see 2 bucks a pound rock on the site all the time

 

[richardhmc]

why not just trash the bad rock and get new stuff less of a pita. I see 2 bucks a pound rock on the site all the time

I was thinking about getting dry base rock, since its pretty much fresh and new. If I buy from here, that live rock is from other people's tanks that could have the same problems that I'm trying to avoid.

I am trashing my sand though and replacing with new.

 

[dubs]

trashing the sand will kill some of the stuff off changing all the water will help and the add nice a cuc along with keeping with wc and running the right midea carbon/gfo ect i think the rock u have should be fine just my op

 

[Jzhou]

Don't use RO water. Like he said, water needs free floating ins to boil. Remember how in hs chem class when the professor would boil water on a hot plate and it would never boil. Then after he put some salt in it, the thing erupts.

 

[Jzhou]

Some people also use the 1/15th bleach solution to clean rock when dealing with algae. personally i think the best way for you to do this is if you just put the rock in a large plastic trashcan with salt water a powerhead a dead shrimp and a heater for a month with the temp cranked to 90. That way all the algae will have died off and you would have started the cycling process to regrow good bacteria.

 

[Jzhou]

also, most things in this hobby requires alot of tim if you are going to do it right. Most people who look for the quick cure method just end up with more head aches.

 

[InfernoST]

^not true at all! RO water will boil as normal at 100 degrees C.

Another suggestion, why not just leave the rocks out and let them dry out completely and then just recure them

The RO/DI will reach boiling temperatures but will not create the rapid boiling bubbling you see with normal tap water because of the lack of minerals. If RO/DI is at boiling temperature then you ad something to the water it will erupt causing severe burns. If your RO/DI water comes to a rapid Bubbling when at boiling temperature then your unit is not doing it's job.

 

[richardhmc]

hmm... so cook it in pot or leave it in bucket is my question. what is more effective?

 

[Jzhou]

Well it depends on what you are loking to do. If you are looking to kill everything then cook your rock. If you're just looking to kill algae, then leave it in a dark container. At least this way you don't also kill all the beneficial bacteria and all the copepods that you want.

 

[Jzhou]

And drying out rock does work. But then you'll have dead hair algae latched on to your rock.

 

[INNEED]

boil it with ro water....