Cooking Dry Rock - how cloudy do you let it get?

[Logzor]

I am cooking some dry rock from bulkreefsupply.

It has been cooking for over 24 hours and the water is still quite clear with some film on the top of the water.

So, how cloudy do you let it get before water changing?

What are other signs that say, do a water change when cooking rock?

[ReefEnabler]

sometimes when the water surface first dirties up real bad, I will take a small bucket or some kind of large cup, and submerge it just to the surface, and then push down so the surface barely overflows. this will skim off the top layer of filth very quickly if you are careful. I think that doing this often in the early stages is almost as effective as water changes since it will promote good gas exchange.

[flyyyguy]

you arent cooking anything

you cant "cook" dead rock that isnt already seeded with beneficial bacteria...and "live"

And even when it is, the cooking doesnt even really start happening for several weeks into it

you are simply risning the rock at this point. If you want to seed it, dump a little ammonia int here and a piece or two of already live rock. let it circulate in a dark tub with a little oxygen whether it be from a tiny venturi hooked up to the pump or an airstone for 6-8 weeks give or take until the ammonia is gone. Then you will have seeded rock you can either use or take it to the next level and continue to cook it.

dont do any water changes until the ammonia is gone...then once you start really cooking it change 100% of the water every week or two for as long as you want. It takes a couple, three months to get it done fairly thoroughly

its a pita but your reef will have a huge advantage and you wont regret taking the effort if you can deal with the wait

[Logzor]

I understand. My plan was to simply rinse of this rock well and start up the tank. Seeding it the way you are saying will take a bit too long as I need to get the new tank set up in a month or so.

My main question was how well should this rock be rinsed before starting it up in a tank.

I figure it will be easier to just seed it when the tank is up and running.

[flyyyguy]

with that being said......go ahead and pretend cook it........change the water every couple fo days......and in between wate changes swish the crap out of it in a bucket....

or better yet, the easiest and most efficient way would be to have two containers........one that you are running it in...then another with fresh asw. every few days swsih the crap out of it in the container it has been running in, and then after swished well move it to the clean water.......repeat this every coupel of days until you stop getting mass amounts of crap off of it and you think it looks good to go. 4 or 5 times should get most of the surface organics and crap off I would say

It would also help if you got a stiff plastic brush and did some scrubbing along with the swishing :)

[Logzor]

Well I did swish it around really well and did not get a whole lot out to begin with, most was the result of drilling debris.

I assume there is some organic matter left on the rock, would this not create ammonia and seed the rock with beneficial bacteria?

[ReefEnabler]

haha flyyyguy... funny you should mention that! I went to a local feed supply store and got two 50g plastic feed tanks and used them exactly like you described when curing my live rock :) easiest way out there is to just move the rocks into the clean tank, and then go clean the crap out of the nasty, fithy stinky one that is left behind :)

[flyyyguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13324801#post13324801 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Logzor
Well I did swish it around really well and did not get a whole lot out to begin with, most was the result of drilling debris.

I assume there is some organic matter left on the rock, would this not create ammonia and seed the rock with beneficial bacteria?

ya......but I have a jump start method of seeding rock. it doesnt take 6 months or more to do it./.....

while I have throughly cooked 400+ pounds of rock in the alst several years........the adding straight ammonia thing to base rock I have ony done once, so YMMV.....but a few months ago It ook 50 lbs of marco rock, a few pouunds of live rock and 1/2 cup of straight ammonia and procedded to jump start a cycle on base rock.

It took about 7 weeks for it to cycle until the ammonia nd nitrites were gon..........and I used that rock to make up about 90% of the rock for my sps tank rebuild. I moved a couple hundred sps corals and most of my fish intot he system.

I would liek to experiment with it some more, but I was pretty pleased with the results I had :)

would like others to try it as well to hoepfully repeat my successes with it as far as being able to really count on base rock to start working for you sooner than later

[Slakker]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13324689#post13324689 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RyanBrucks
sometimes when the water surface first dirties up real bad, I will take a small bucket or some kind of large cup, and submerge it just to the surface, and then push down so the surface barely overflows. this will skim off the top layer of filth very quickly if you are careful. I think that doing this often in the early stages is almost as effective as water changes since it will promote good gas exchange.

I do the same thing with a cup in my nano when I do water changes.

[hottuna]

I'd be careful with that rock...I had excess silicates and phosphates for months after "cooking" their rock...dead sponges and organic matter in nooks and crannies was the cause...
I now use hand picked pristine caribbean coral skeletons I aquired when in the cayman islands last month...it is the best & cleanest dry rock I have ever seen....soaked it in r/o di water for 2 weeks...then dried it in the sun...then resoaked in r/o di for another few days....water tested good-no excess anything....I wont use anything from marco or bulk reef supply after finding this rock....

[GlassReef]

Logzor, hope you don'y mind me butting into your thread, but I was wondering what you folks - flyyyguy - think about "cooking" dry rock in the aquarium itself. Full flow, full skimmer, no lights. Any thoughts - it would make it so much easier.

[Logzor]

Ya know I was wondering the same thing. I think I am just doing it get some of the junk off of it. My tank is not ready for water so I am just doing this to clean it some. I just hope it speeds things up when I put it in the tank and seed it with live rock.

I really dont understand the concept of putting ammonia in while "cooking" it. It seems like it would make more sense to just add clean live rock to the dead rock right into the tank.

I have never heard of anyone have problems with silicates using marco or bulkreefsupply rock. Considering how much of it they sell we would of heard more about this problem.

[Blazer88]

I'm currently doing something similar with rock from bulk reef supply as well. I bought 60 pounds for my 90G build and will use about 30 pounds from my current 65G tank. I put the dry rock into a 30 gallon trash can, added power heads, salt, heater, etc and plumbed my skimmer into it. I actually haven't been pulling much, if any, skimmate and the water is crystal clear. I'm hoping the rock will be clean enough to just use and mix with my current stuff.

[flyyyguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13325288#post13325288 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by GlassReef
Logzor, hope you don'y mind me butting into your thread, but I was wondering what you folks - flyyyguy - think about "cooking" dry rock in the aquarium itself. Full flow, full skimmer, no lights. Any thoughts - it would make it so much easier.

it can work fine doing it in the tank. It wont be easier though. It will be much more work as you will have to be careful as you do it. Two seperate tubs and swishing back and forth to each one evry water change is truly the simplest, easiest and safest way to go.

when you swish the rocks hard there is some splashing. If you are doing this in your living room every couple of weeks you will need to have a very understanding partner.

also if you are doing it in yoru display tank whether acrylci or glas you will have to be very careful about damaging the tank. scratches, dropping rocks etc.

big plastic invincible tubs is really the way to go and once you go through the process once you will realize you really dont want to do it in a display tank nor in your living room. You want to do it in the garage where you can make a mess and use containers you arent going to damage.