live rock

[tankdude]

What does it mean to cook live rock? Is it literally boiling the rock or just storing it without any light. I have a terrible problem with gsp and someone told me I would have to cook the rock to get rid of it.

[graphixx]

storing it without light.. this way most of the nuisance species are eradicated like the aptaisia, gsp's etc, etc.

or i guess boiling it would help all that stuff too but much quicker and would kill all the little pods and critters in the tank which would not be a good thing.

[Sir Patrick]

2 different types of cooking live rock-

1 is to actually cook it, usually with boiling water, which will kill the live rock. It will have to be recycled, and will take time to become live again.

2 is to starve the rock from light, and doing frequent saltwater rinses and water changes. This method will kill all light loving nuicence critter/plants while keeping the rock alive. The rinsing and water changes will also end up pulling out alot of the nasties that have built up into the rock over time. When its done you will end up with clean healthy rock, unlikely to grow nuicence algeas.

If you need more exact info on cooking your rock, I will be glad to go deeper into detail.

I got a batch cooking as I type.

[tazzy695]

easier method to eraticate and safer then boiling would be to simply set out on the porch for a week and let dry out then put into a cycling bin with skimmer and black it out to kill any nuciance algae that might be left

[Sir Patrick]

^ That is another method, but will do nothing about the built up nutrients in the rock. "Cooking" rock is about much more than killing off algea.