Live rock Help 20lb chunk

[donkey77]

ok so my LR had a **** load of po4 in it, its a big piece about 20lbs, i took it out of my tank, whats the best way to clean it, kill it, get the freaking po4 out of it, let it sit in the sun for a week, pressure wash it, its a boulder, i think iam going to smash it up to 2 or 3 pieces , i just don't know what to do with it, its a nice chunk but just to big, i battled algae for a year, and the algae won so i had to take it out. i did weekly water changes every week and never missed one, its a 34g tank with a 25g sump,
much help appreciated
thanks

[AquaPin]

If you google how to cook rock, you will get lots of information on how to do it. Basically it eats away the outer layer where the PO4 is supposed to be. I have also talked to another collector who just used phosguard to extract the PO4 as it was leached from the rock, but took about a year. Cooking is more work, but results are great if you do it right.

Also as far as breaking it up goes, I would only do that if you can not fit it in nicely in your tank. Assuming it has some nice shapes/holes, it is great to have something larger that is solid (will not tumble apart) and a good support for any other rock you want to aquascape with.

[AdamsB]

I believe soaking it in ro water for weeks (possibly months) will draw out the nasties. Also when you do get set up again try a media reactor with rowaphos, or gfo if you can get it. I've found this to be a huge help in my algae battle. More so the GFO.

[donkey77]

i was using foz down with no effect,

[gregzz4]

Cooking rock, as in using heat or drying it, will do nothing for PO4 removal. All it will do is kill all the life, thus creating a bunch of stuff you'll need to remove such as NO2-3, NH3 etc, plus more PO4
Once the rock is dead, you'd still need to 'cure' it to remove all that residual stuff that's trapped inside all the micro pores

'Cooking LR' is the process of curing it and, as mentioned above, can be found on the web, but Myka has written a nice bit for you to read

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=44859

It can take weeks, but more likely months, for you to get your LR to acceptable levels
Using phosphate removers in the tub (with a heater and powerhead) will definately help, but it still takes time for the PO4 to leach out of the rock

You could always look for another piece of LR, but test the water before you buy it :wink:

Good luck :smile:

[donkey77]

got my LR out side cause it stinks, gonna try to cook it tomorrow