Restart with Cooked Rocks

[cutebarra77]

Hi,

after 2 consecutive accidents (GHA infestation and Hydrogen Sulphide poisoning), I have decided to restart with no sand bed and using cooked rocks.

I have came across some literature in cooking rocks in reef central and reeftank, and wanted to seek Singapore-based reefers' experiences in the cooking of rocks.

After the accidents, I have removed the LRs, dipped overnight in tap water and scrubbed off the dead matter and blast them with jets of water to clear as much matter as possible. After that, they are air-dried and sun whenever I have the chance for the last 4 weeks.

I have not started any rock curing process or tank cycling. Want to seek some inputs here first.

Is my rock cooking method ok? I suspect it is not and there may still be dead matters and PO4 in them.

One additional step (from other forums) for me to consider is to bleached them with H2O2, rinsed many times, sun and dry them first before use.

But I do not want to run the risk of chemical poisoning.

Or should I play safe and start with artificial rocks?

Many thanks.

[linko]

Hi Bro,

I had got about the same problem in my previous 24gal Nano set-up and i tried to rid them off as possible as i can do. But,unfortunately, it was ended to go cooking method by fresh water washing and sun dry to my LRs and restarted with new tank set up. I had faced Bryopsis, GHA, Dinoflagellates and Red Wiry Turf Algae (Gelidium) . I had got the worst nightmare for my hobby !

I dried round about 15kg LRs under sun for 1 and half month. It's too risky to feel on it.

After cooking process all that shits gone and the rocks were dead too. But even tough every lives from the LRs were dead, a few of Red Wiry Turf Algae can still survive. You know how troublesome they are?

Then i rid the left over Red Wiry Turf Algae by manual removing to clear at all and i restarted my new tank cycling at July 16 this year. While i restarted my tank, i moved my corals ( mostly zoas and palys ) to AM for temporary holding for me. After 4 weeks later i brought back my zoas and palys. I did 20min 3% H2O2 solution BP (5ml per 1 lit of tank water) dipping to all frags before i transferred back into the new tank. Everythigs going fine until last saturday, i saw a few Red Wiry Turf Algae came back again. Base on my Salifert test kits, my water parameters are fine and no issue. I really don't know about exact reasons of the red wiry turf algae problem and i supposed it's too hard to rid off. I had to swap out affective LRs and zoas frag again and manually removed again. Anyway I would like to share my experience with you since our decision are slightly the same way.

According to my experience, i could rid GHA by dipping H2O2 except Red Wiry Turf Algae. But i never dose H2O2 into the tank water. For Red Wiry Turf Algae, i could only remove by manual. Really bad algae, IMO.

Hopefully, my information can help you apart and please share your algae problem more detail for others Bros here can help to you.

Here is the link

http://www.reefcleaners.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54&Itemid=60 about Nuisance Algae ID Guide from REEF CLEANERS.

May win your combat with Nuisance Algae!

Happy Reefing,

linko

[tropic]

Some old light tubes or wrong spectrum does encourage nuisance algae..

[starfish123]

for me i use hot water to cook the rocks... boil it in water and so far three month and nothing happen

[cutebarra77]

Hi Bro,

I had got about the same problem in my previous 24gal Nano set-up and i tried to rid them off as possible as i can do. But,unfortunately, it was ended to go cooking method by fresh water washing and sun dry to my LRs and restarted with new tank set up. I had faced Bryopsis, GHA, Dinoflagellates and Red Wiry Turf Algae (Gelidium) . I had got the worst nightmare for my hobby !

I dried round about 15kg LRs under sun for 1 and half month. It's too risky to feel on it.

After cooking process all that shits gone and the rocks were dead too. But even tough every lives from the LRs were dead, a few of Red Wiry Turf Algae can still survive. You know how troublesome they are?

Then i rid the left over Red Wiry Turf Algae by manual removing to clear at all and i restarted my new tank cycling at July 16 this year. While i restarted my tank, i moved my corals ( mostly zoas and palys ) to AM for temporary holding for me. After 4 weeks later i brought back my zoas and palys. I did 20min 3% H2O2 solution BP (5ml per 1 lit of tank water) dipping to all frags before i transferred back into the new tank. Everythigs going fine until last saturday, i saw a few Red Wiry Turf Algae came back again. Base on my Salifert test kits, my water parameters are fine and no issue. I really don't know about exact reasons of the red wiry turf algae problem and i supposed it's too hard to rid off. I had to swap out affective LRs and zoas frag again and manually removed again. Anyway I would like to share my experience with you since our decision are slightly the same way.

According to my experience, i could rid GHA by dipping H2O2 except Red Wiry Turf Algae. But i never dose H2O2 into the tank water. For Red Wiry Turf Algae, i could only remove by manual. Really bad algae, IMO.

Hopefully, my information can help you apart and please share your algae problem more detail for others Bros here can help to you.

Here is the link

http://www.reefclean...id=54&Itemid=60 about Nuisance Algae ID Guide from REEF CLEANERS.

May win your combat with Nuisance Algae!

Happy Reefing,

linko

Thanks for the link, Linko.

In my case, it was definitely GHA.

I simply do not know the reasons why they thrived even though I did the following:

1) Phosban reactor

2) Weekly 20% water (distilled) change

3) 6hrs of HOT5 (2 x 39W) daily (new light sets since June 2012);

4) Weekly dosage of Algaefix or It's clear

5) Fish feeding - 1 cube of mysis and small cube of Henry gourmet daily

6) Zero NO3 and PO4 readings with API and Tropic Marine testkits respectively

Despite all the above, the GHA still thrive and grew on my LRs.

Weekly manual scrubs also no use.

Super annoying!

[linko]

I supposed you should give it a try for few more days with 3% H2O2 before you totally restart.

I got some awards with it for my Zoas & Palys frags. But in your case it is depend on your species of corals and the difficulties of swapping out the corals & LRs from your tanks. I don't recomand to dose to your tank directly.

Cheers!

[cutebarra77]

I supposed you should give it a try for few more days with 3% H2O2 before you totally restart.

I got some awards with it for my Zoas & Palys frags. But in your case it is depend on your species of corals and the difficulties of swapping out the corals & LRs from your tanks. I don't recomand to dose to your tank directly.

Cheers!

Do u mean rewards instead of awards?

I am doing zoas, yumas and rics. I am doing a major "house keeping" this weekend and passing my assets to my buddy reefer whom introduced this amazing hobby to me a year ago. Decision already made to overhaul the tank and systems to annihilate any traces of GHA. I still have 2 more days to think thru if I should use h2o2 to chemical cook the rocks...

Lots of rocks to scrub...about 80kg...gonna be a super tiring weekend...

[cutebarra77]

Btw, I have a UV sterilizer too...tried the algae scrubber option too...invested so much time, energy and money and still lost to these hairy green monsters... Simply amazing!

In my new project, thinking of covering all my dead rocks with coralline algae first before introducing livestock. Though takes longer, but I'm sure the outcomes are rewarding...

[Gouldian]

Bro,

I think scrubbing works for me too. Have a few rocks that periodically have GHA and i managed to addressed them with frequent scrubbing in my display tank.

However, there is one rocks that scrubbing did not work even water parameters were ok. I surmise that this particular rock is leaching phosphate and because of the shape of the rock, I could not reach into the inner part of the LR that is expose to light but not my brush. So what I did was, I place some rowa in a bag and stuff the bag into this rock. After 2 weeks i change the rowa and repeated. Now no more GHA.

Hope that helps.

[linko]

Do u mean rewards instead of awards?

I am doing zoas, yumas and rics. I am doing a major "house keeping" this weekend and passing my assets to my buddy reefer whom introduced this amazing hobby to me a year ago. Decision already made to overhaul the tank and systems to annihilate any traces of GHA. I still have 2 more days to think thru if I should use h2o2 to chemical cook the rocks...

Lots of rocks to scrub...about 80kg...gonna be a super tiring weekend...

Sori Bro, wrong spelling. I had good result with 3% H2O2.

I agreed Bro Gouldian comment, the shape of the LRs is another issue.

I did nice looking rock scape with various shapes of LRs combination in my previous Nano Tank. Two years after, that nice scape gave me a bomb of GHA ,Red Wiry Turf Algae and Aiptasia which is very difficult to remove due to the size of Nano tank and Tankscape.

Now a day, I setup Nano again and I'm going to minimal Rock Scape with Single piece of LRs.

I hate GHA and lousy LRs which surface is difficult to remove the debris and left over fish foods by wave maker. And the Tank Scape with lots of Dead Spots too.

[Gouldian]

Another mistake I make when I was battling Aiptasia was I tried brushing concentrated kalkwasser into the LRs.

This, I found out later causing the phosphate to be bounded into the LRs and was later leached to fuel nuisance algae.

[honkit]

My suggestion (and this may be contrary to popular opinion) is to start a tank off with DEAD rocks and 100% RO/DI water.

This will tremendously cut down on the number of algae and pest issues one would have to deal with going forward.

[m12345y]

My suggestion (and this may be contrary to popular opinion) is to start a tank off with DEAD rocks and 100% RO/DI water.

This will tremendously cut down on the number of algae and pest issues one would have to deal with going forward.

Second this, and be patient in the beginning

Also, take careful steps when introducing corals bought from LFS, especially zoas. They usually come with free gifts

[cutebarra77]

Sori Bro, wrong spelling. I had good result with 3% H2O2.

I agreed Bro Gouldian comment, the shape of the LRs is another issue.

I did nice looking rock scape with various shapes of LRs combination in my previous Nano Tank. Two years after, that nice scape gave me a bomb of GHA ,Red Wiry Turf Algae and Aiptasia which is very difficult to remove due to the size of Nano tank and Tankscape.

Now a day, I setup Nano again and I'm going to minimal Rock Scape with Single piece of LRs.

I hate GHA and lousy LRs which surface is difficult to remove the debris and left over fish foods by wave maker. And the Tank Scape with lots of Dead Spots too.

Very good point on the rock shape, linko and gouldian.

I'm going to be super selective on the rock shapes to be cooked for the restart.

And thanks for all other suggestions from other bros.

My plan is to follow the original cooking idea without h2o2, heavy scrubbing and soaking, air and sun dry for 4 weeks, then start cycling.

Then cultivate corAline algae, make sure the rocks are purpled up before adding corals and fishes.

Hopefully, I can have a 'deep purple' tank...

The GHA really pissed me off, have this strong urge to burn them to ashes every day I see them in the tank.

Deep hatred for this pest.

[linko]

My plan is to follow the original cooking idea without h2o2, heavy scrubbing and soaking, air and sun dry for 4 weeks, then start cycling.

Then cultivate corAline algae, make sure the rocks are purpled up before adding corals and fishes.

Hopefully, I can have a 'deep purple' tank...

wow! Serious Planner in Rock works.

May your plans come true!

Cheers !