Boiling Rock

[brettm3535]

I have approx 20lbs of rock that was once live. I took it out of my DT because of atipsia. The rock has been sitting out on my deck for a couple of months or so in a five gal pail. I plan on recureing the rock and put it back in my tank. Just a few questions on the boiling procedure, do I just simply boil in a pot on the stove? Also after I do the boiling I will place the rock into a garbage pail with saltwater and heater to start the recureing process. Approx how long will this take? and do I have to ad any supliments to the water?
Thanks for the help

[sphelps]

skip the boiling process and place the rock directly into the pail with saltwater. This is sometimes referred to as cooking although you don't actually cook the rock, you just cure it in total darkness to prevent algae growth. More than likely nothing will have survived from being dry for months. It can take a couple months to fully re-cure but it depends on how often you change the water among other things. If you use your old tank water it could speed up the process. It's pretty much the same as cycling a tank.

[mark]

maybe you're thinking cooking?

Hi if you just put in a pail dry for 2 months you may still have some stuff that will be alive the atipsia will be dead but there maybe some stuff alive that lives in side of the rock. I would just put it in a pail of salt water and see what comes out it maybe beneficial for you tank this way.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by sphelps

skip the boiling process and place the rock directly into the pail with saltwater. This is sometimes referred to as cooking although you don't actually cook the rock, you just cure it in total darkness to prevent algae growth. More than likely nothing will have survived from being dry for months. It can take a couple months to fully re-cure but it depends on how often you change the water among other things. If you use your old tank water it could speed up the process. It's pretty much the same as cycling a tank.

Agreed. If you want to speed the process you can raise the temperature of the "cooking" vat to about 90 degrees for the first month to help speed along the leeching process. You can do that just with freshwater to save yourself money. Weekly or twice weekly 100% water changes. Then you can use saltwater after that at a typical 76-80 degrees. Using old tank (saltwater) is a great idea to help seed the rock with nitrifying bacteria. Once the whole process is nearly over if you add a piece or two or three of very FRESH uncured live rock from the LFS you can introduce a bunch of great fauna too. After all this you will have some great rock!

[brettm3535]

Thanks for the responces