Lucky Day

[mvallee]

I went to pick up a tank for the Sump room I am building and the guy I picked it up from asked if I was looking for rock and he brought down these two beautiful pieces of Tonga of course I said Hellz yeah.

The big one is 16" tall and the shelf extends out 7" from the base perfect for the lagoon style tank I am putting in the sump room. unfortunately these have been out of water for a month, they are still damp and just starting to smell, so time to cook them I guess, I assume take all the matter I can off maybe spray them down with a high pressure hose first? anything else I should do with rock so covered in organic matter? There are sponges, coraline and lots of hair algae on the rocks.

quick pic of what I am working with here. funny how I can got more excited over rock than the tank.

 

[reef87]

Nice.
Nice shape rocks. I would use them inbyour display once they are cooked, and cured

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[s_kelley]

Nice grab! Scrap as much junk off before starting to cook em

 

[mpsteve]

I like em

 

[this is me]

Damn Mike. Those are some nice pieces of rock!

 

[Curren007K]

Nicely shaped. If you want to nuke everything you could give it an acid bath.

 

[mvallee]

Nicely shaped. If you want to nuke everything you could give it an acid bath.

I was wondering if I should or just let them cook naturally, what acid do you use?

 

[wolffman1992]

Beautiful rock! What do you mean by "cook naturally"

 

[Jim Tansey]

Just put them in a strong bleach mix for a couple days, then in a bucket of water for a week or so and leave outside in the sunshine. Change the water in the bucket a few times.

Jim

 

[mvallee]

Beautiful rock! What do you mean by "cook naturally"

basically from what I have read, place the rock in a barrel with saltwater, heater and power head and leave covered so no light gets in to prohibit algae, then every couple of weeks you take and clean the rock of any loose debris and change out the water. keep doing that until your rock is clean and your nitrates and phosphate readings are way down. Then it is safe to put in your tank.

could take 1-2 months but is the safest way from what I have read to prep previously live rock that has dried or to kill off all the bad algae's before reusing.

definitely a strange term but has nothing to do with heat

 

[mvallee]

Just put them in a strong bleach mix for a couple days, then in a bucket of water for a week or so and leave outside in the sunshine. Change the water in the bucket a few times.

Jim

this might be the way to go with these, I read up on muriatic acid and not up for doing that, seems like bleach will be a good start but still think I will need to cure these in a separate tank until nitrates and phosphates are undetectable as there is a lot of "stuff" on these and lots of nooks and crannies.
I got time so not rushing this

 

[mvallee]

I am glad everyone likes these and it was not just me, makes the work I will need to put in that much more worth it.

 

[Jim Tansey]

this might be the way to go with these, I read up on muriatic acid and not up for doing that, seems like bleach will be a good start but still think I will need to cure these in a separate tank until nitrates and phosphates are undetectable as there is a lot of "stuff" on these and lots of nooks and crannies.
I got time so not rushing this

NOTHING will survive the bleach dip it really is the way to go with this rock.

Jim

 

[reef87]

basically from what I have read, place the rock in a barrel with saltwater, heater and power head and leave covered so no light gets in to prohibit algae, then every couple of weeks you take and clean the rock of any loose debris and change out the water. keep doing that until your rock is clean and your nitrates and phosphate readings are way down. Then it is safe to put in your tank.

could take 1-2 months but is the safest way from what I have read to prep previously live rock that has dried or to kill off all the bad algae's before reusing.

definitely a strange term but has nothing to do with heat

Bleach method works fine and faster.
Just put the rocks in the barrel and fill the barrel with just enough water and maybe a gallon or two of the cheap market basket bleach.
Please do it outside.
Let them soak for a 4-5 hours, longer is better but not necesary.
Wash and rinse alot thereafter.
The key is to let the rocks dry so that it dry out all the bleach.
After that you can use them just like dry rocks but you need to cure them.
Summer time or when the weather get warmer is the best time to do it.
Have done it a million times.

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[William]

Great looking rock, I just did lights out and ran a power head for a week. Did a water change and ran gfo for a week, then I turned on a cheap light and watched to see if it would sprout any junk. If it did sprout junk it would have gotten muriatic acid bath.

 

[JohnK]

It seems like there is some conflicting thinking about the different ways of "cooking" rock.

- Natural cooking (submerged in saltwater, in the dark for weeks, no bleach or acid) Good for killing off specific photosynthetic organisms, but doesn't kill bacterial populations or many other life forms. Lots of life can survive.

- Bleaching (soak in bleach for hours to days, then rinse and dry until no more bleach smell). Kills everything, dissolves solid organics that may be in or on the rock (that could potentially pollute the water down the road)

-Muratic acid (soak in acid solution for days to weeks) This is done when rock has been in a high nutrient environment for along time (i.e. fish tank with ongoing nutrient issues) and has phosphate bound to the surfaces of the rock. The acid dissolves layers of the actual rock so it no longer holds and then later leaches off phosphate. Also kills everything.


Much like treating disease in fish, it's best to know which method you're going with and most importantly Why that method and not another.

 

[mvallee]

It seems like there is some conflicting thinking about the different ways of "cooking" rock.

- Natural cooking (submerged in saltwater, in the dark for weeks, no bleach or acid) Good for killing off specific photosynthetic organisms, but doesn't kill bacterial populations or many other life forms. Lots of life can survive.

- Bleaching (soak in bleach for hours to days, then rinse and dry until no more bleach smell). Kills everything, dissolves solid organics that may be in or on the rock (that could potentially pollute the water down the road)

-Muratic acid (soak in acid solution for days to weeks) This is done when rock has been in a high nutrient environment for along time (i.e. fish tank with ongoing nutrient issues) and has phosphate bound to the surfaces of the rock. The acid dissolves layers of the actual rock so it no longer holds and then later leaches off phosphate. Also kills everything.


Much like treating disease in fish, it's best to know which method you're going with and most importantly Why that method and not another.

Thanks John for the detailed description and analysis, I am thinking Acid bath would be best for these, lots of hard coraline, coral skeletons and thick with hair algae but after reading up on it I really do not feel comfortable withe the procedure so am going to go the bleach route. these rocks are dead, out of water for at least a month so nothing to kill really just need all the bio matter off.