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View Full Version : "cook" rock in sump?


jadeguppy
12/01/2007, 09:40 AM
I am wondering if there is a benefit to keeping the sump blacked out (part with the return pump and live rock) similar to when cooking rock. Has anyone tried this? I'm thinking that this way only denitrifying bacteria will survive as opposed to phytosynthesising organisms.

Sk8r
12/01/2007, 09:53 AM
I never have cooked my rock except accidentally when I moved. Ugh!
I do get new pieces from time to time and toss them in the fuge to manifest what they've got---of course, it gets all through my system, but hey, I've got peps to pick up baby aiptasia, I've got a fuge to head off noxious algaes, and otherwise I've gotten some neat hitchhikers, pods, amphipods, mysis, spiorbids, polychaetes, mini-dusters, mini brittle-stars, sponges [5 different kinds, plus one that may be something slightly more exotic]...but you do risk getting something you don't want, that's for sure.

So with the understanding the person passing out advice doesn't even cook rock---

Depends on your rock source: if it's got a lot of dieoff, I wouldn't put it in the sump at all, for fear of nitrate spike; but if it looks pretty barren, it ought to be ok in there. Keeping it dark is going to slow down growth, but in my own experience, the worst things are SO hardy you're apt to kill off the nicer ones and have them left: the only thing that survived my rock-cooking incident was one aiptasia and a few roots of caulerpa---which of course immediately sprang forward to occupy all those abandoned econiches and grew like crazy.

But now you've heard from the nutcase who gladly puts live rock into a tank or sump with no cooking at all...let's hear from those that do take precautions.

jadeguppy
12/01/2007, 10:24 AM
I was thinking of adding dry rock and letting it colonize or in tank rock, but keeping it blacked out. I guess I should have mentioned the rock source.

old salty
12/01/2007, 11:39 AM
I have about 30lbs of "Cooked" rock in my sump. The key would be to add rock that doesn't have much life on it in the first place. If you add rock that has photosynthetic life on it, it will die and thus add whatever dead stuff adds to the water.

I think the term is "cryptic fuge" meaning it has no light. I got this idea a while back when I visited a guy with a HUGE tank. He had a cryptic fuge as part of his system. When he shined a light inside there, you could hardly see through the water as there were so many pods living in there.

Kevin1000
12/01/2007, 12:18 PM
My 02

Placing live rock in a sump with lights off only has the benefit of light deprivation ... cooking in the std context would require prolonged removal from the show tank/sump using not only light deprivation but multiple water changes.

In general "cooking" is a term coined for prolonged curing in a separate tank where light deprivation, multiple water changes, and prolonged period of "curing" assist in the removal of organic material and phosphates. Curing in a sump just releases the phosphates to migrate to the show tank.

uscharalph
12/01/2007, 12:44 PM
What are you trying to accomplish?

jadeguppy
12/01/2007, 12:47 PM
de nitrification, pods, without nasty build up that I hear sometimes happens with rock in a sump.