Quote Originally Posted by MyNemesis View Post
Hey Tom. I wondered the exact same thing when I was having some problems: "I wonder if the LR is saturated with phosphates and it takes a long time to pull it out." There is evidence that after time live rock can absorb phosphates and leach them back into the tank. I took out established live rock with no corals, other than mushrooms, growing on them and "cooked" them in batches, like maybe a third of the rock at a time. I should also add that I started this process after I had to tear down the rock structure in one half of my tank to catch a Powder Blue tang who turned into a turd and killed almost everything in my tank. So I disturbed the substrate and the base rocks and figured it was a good time to clean out the rock. Put them in a dark room in salt water with a heater and a good powerhead. Every time you do a water change in the aquarium, use the tank water to change the water in the cooking chamber. You should "cook" it for a good 45 days. You will not believe the amount of crap that comes out of your rock. You can add a bag of phos guard in a media bag to help speed up the process. PS. The tank looks killer!
What temp did you maintain to cook the rock? Learning not questioning. I have read about this process in the past but have not done it myself personally.i have always just replaced the rock in sections tell the aqua scape is fully replaced. Of course this also created mini cycles but when done gave us a fresh new look ! Old rock syndrome (I have no better name for it) is something to be considered for sure. I just think it is hard to determin if and when the rock has been saturated. I did this only when I was at the point of total loss of solutions. Tom you say you know that you have Po4 even tho your tests show zero. I think getting a new test is a good idea then see if the results are the same. Have you considered a bacterial problem maybe also. I know sometimes well water even water that has been ran thru a RO DI sometimes can create issues. Indications of small bubbles stuck to rock would be a sighn. Food for thought is all.