An Article About LR Cooking

[hamannbmw]

The purpose of "cooking" your rocks is to have tha bacteria consume all (or as much) organic material and PO4 stored on, and in, the rock as possible.

The first step to this is commitment.

You have to be willing to remove your rock from the tank.

It doesn't have to be all at once, but I feel if you are going to do this do it all. In stages if that is easier but make sure that all of it gets done.

The new environment you are creating for your rock is to take it from an algal driven to a bacterial driven system.

In order to this, the rock needs to be in total darkness to retard and eventually kill the algae's on the rock and to give the bacteria time to do the job.

So basically you need tubs to hold the rock.

Equipment needed.

1. Dedication.

2. Tubs to cook rock in. And an equal amount of tubs to hold the rock during waterchanges.

3. A few powerheads.

4. Plenty of buckets.

5. A smug feeling of superiority that you are taking it to "the next level."

Here are the steps, if you have any questions I will try my best to answer them. What I don't know I am sure Bomber can/will instruct.

1. Get into your head and accept the fact you will be making lots of salt water if you aren't lucky enough to have access to filtered NSW.

2. Explain to significant other what is going on so they don't flip out. This process can take up to 2 months. Prepare them in advance so he/she can mark it on the calendar and that they won't nag about it until that date arrives.

3. Setup a tub(s) where the rock is to be cooked. Garages are great for this.

4. Make up enough water to fill tub(s) about halfway and around 5-7 buckets about 60% full.

5. Remove all the rock you want to cook at this stage. (The rock can be removed piece by piece until you are done.) I suggest shutting off the circulation beforehand to minimize dust storms.

6. Take the first piece of rock and dunk it, swish it, very, very well in the first bucket. Then do it again in the 2nd bucket, then the third.

7. Place rock in the tub.

8. Repeat steps 6 & 7 to every piece of rock you want to cook at this time. The reason I suggested 5-7 buckets of water will be evident quickly...as the water quickly turnsq brown.

9. Place powerhead(s) in the tub and plug in. Position at least one powerhead so that it agitates the surface of the water pretty well. This is to keep the water oxygenated. You can use an air pump for additional oxygenation if you wish.

9. Cover the tub. Remember, we want total darkness.

10. Empty out buckets, restart circulation on main tank.

11. Wait.

12. During the first couple of weeks it is recommended to do a swishing and dunking of the rocks twice a week.

What this entails is to make up enough water to fill up those buckets and the tub the rock is in.

First, lay out your empty tub(s) and fill buckets the same as before.

Then, uncover tub with the rock in it. Take a rock and swish it in the tub it's in to knock any easy to get off junk.

Then, swish it thru the 3 buckets again, and place in the empty tub..

Repeat for all your rocks.

Then empty the tub that all the rocks were cooking in, take it outside and rinse it out with a hose.

Place tub back where it was, fill with new saltwater, add rocks and powerheads, and cover.

Wait again unti the next water change.

You will be utterly amazed at how much sand, silt, detrius is at the bottom of the tub and every bucket. It is amazing.

How it works:

Some FAQ's.

When re-introducing the rock to my tank, a month or two from now, should I do that in parts to help minimize any cycling effect(s)...if there are any?

I never have. Really after a very short while, the ammonium cycle has been extablished. That's not what you're worry about though, it's the stored phosphates and that you have to wait it out.

When they are producing very little detritus - you'll know - then I would use them all at once.

Would running Carbon filtration and/or a PO4 reducing media help/hurry/hinder the process?

I wouldn't fool with it. You don't want the detritus to sit there long enough to rot, release water soluble P again. You want to take it out while it's still locked up in that bacterial detritus.

I hope this helps you out.

It really is a "miracle" and a low cost one at that.

The only monies spent are for salt and electricity for the powerheads which are nominal. Especially to rid yourself of Bryopsis.

Time and effort is all it akes. And really not that much effort.

I would say that 85% of my exposed rock had Bryopsis (hair algae) covering it.

There isn't a single visible strand on andy rocks in the tubs now.

Remember, the key is patience. Let this process run its course.

And a few last minute tidbits I remembered.

Your coralline will die back, receed etc.

My thoughts on this are GREAT!

Now my rock is more porous for additional pods, mysids, worms etc.

Coralline will grow back.

Throughout this process the sponges, and pods on my rock have not died off.

Everytime I do a waterchange they are there and plentiful.

[[JS]]

bro dead rocks have po4 in it?

[[JS]]

does dead rocks have p04 in it

can cook dead rocks?

[hamannbmw]

seriously I'm not very sure. However, If dead rock has no PO4 present, why is everyone using the actual LR cooking method instead of put the LR in a pail of FW and put it under the sun for a week, most organism will die off right ?

[tineng]

acutally my opinon is that those the sponges, and pods on the rocks can actually die in the process of 'cooking' as there will be noting for them to feed on the 2 months you are cooking the rocks.....wouldn't they die during the period and contribute to the PO4 in the rocks????? Thus, wouldn't it be better to do the cooking for a longer period of time so that the pods and sponge die off and their residual nutrian exhasted?

[madmac]

JS, I think you do need to cook dead rocks as well. They contain lots of po4 from the die offs within the rocks... it doesn't mean that you see no algae on the rocks or it looks clean, theres no nutrients within them.

The impt thing is, this method of cooking eventually brings about a clean thriving microbial habitat, devoid of any nutrients and ideal for a new tank setup with little nutrients in them too. Its a great start so to speak.

TinEng, it was found that even after a two month dark period, some micro-organisms including, sponges, pods and even certain low light corals still can survive. If they do die, then the process of live-rock cooking... requiring you to change water(salt) weekly will rid of the excesses.

[tineng]

i don't know....i had cooked my rocks before starting this tank and because i have not moved in during that period, i have a good 4 months of cooking.....but in the end it didn't work and has still go through the algae cycle....

few things i suspect.....

1) the NSW i used still contain enough balances to offset the cooking process

2) the containers used is too small....about 2/3 rocks 1/3 water

3) 1 day before the move, i did drain out the water........moving 100kg of LR with water is no joke!!!!

So, if anyone going to try this method, please don't make the mistake i did......

btw, cooking rocks doesn't remove those nasty hariy crab....somehow they will still appear - dispite suning for weeks prior to the cooking process.....

[hamannbmw]

Hi tineng,

Do u mix yr NSW with RODI/DI water ?

[tineng]

Hi tineng,

Do u mix yr NSW with RODI/DI water ?

nope.....did not use RO/DI water for cooking.....maybe that's why didn't work.....but seriously to cook 100kg of LR with RO/DI salt mix......SIONG!!!!

[Gouldian]

So bros,

What will be the major differents and results from Cooking LR vs the old method of curing LR using Spray and Skimming (as practiced by CF)?

TIA

[madmac]

sorry Goudian, don't know how the old method works, care to detail.

rock cooking:

done in dark, to rid of photo syntactic life-forms, cyano and algae dies

bacteria tugour(sp?) within rocks will cause it to shed sand and detritus from itself for several weeks, thus self-cleaning itself

requires a weekly change of new salt-water and a rather cumbersome way of "swishing"/"dunking" rocks in clean water to remove loose detritus within

finally, rocks become alive by bacteria action, rather than algae driven, and has little nutrients within.

This is what mine looked like after 2 months:

close up:

[Gouldian]

The so called "Old" method is what most called the proper method of curing liverocks.

It involves spraying seawater (natural or synthetic) onto LRs. The LRs are placed suspended so that they are never submerge.

The water that are sprayed on to the LRs are drained into a collection tub whereby it is skimmed, filtered and pumped back into the spray bars.

This is the method currently widely practice by some LR cultivators and locally, Coral Farm practice that too.

Since this is the first time, I heard of LR Cooking, it is natural that I am curious about the pros and cons vs the method I know.

Hope to be enlightened. TIA

[hamannbmw]

nope.....did not use RO/DI water for cooking.....maybe that's why didn't work.....but seriously to cook 100kg of LR with RO/DI salt mix......SIONG!!!!

i didnt cook my rocks lar... i jus post an article for those who might be interested to cook their rocks.

If i remember correctly, if the LR was being cooked for a period of time...its full of beneficial bacteria and it get rids of algae, sponges and detritus. You can actually star yr tank without cycling.

"dont quote me, since i didnt went back to check the thread i read to confirm"