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how long to cook live rock


reeflover

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i will be cycling my tank pretty soon with live rock. Is it wise to cook live rock while cycling the tank? How long should i cook them for? I just want to kill all unwanted algea and things on live rock that we dont want such as aipstasia ...

Should one month will get rid of them? I will change some water and run skimmer while cook them. I also will cover the tank in black plasitc bag to make sure ther is no light to get in. I need your advices. thanks

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Typically, when you cook live rock, you do it in a covered tub with no light, no skimmer. Just a powerhead and a heater if you need one. The principle behind it is that the bacteria consume all the dieing and decaying matter, including phosphates. With numerous water changes, the goal is to eliminate all the critters and phosphates within the rocks.

The short answer as to how long it takes is that it's done when the water tests for 0 phosphates. It can take a couple of weeks, maybe two months, depending on how often you change the water and how dirty the rock is.

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depend on where you get your live rock from?

online order or local or from someone tank?

a lot of the live rock from local fish store already stay in the tank for a while already, they should be ready or close to ready, just probably goes through a mini cycle in your tank ==> 1 months should be good ==> check Nitrate cycle with test kit, once your ammonia and nitrate is really, low, I say 0, but hey, you don't need to be the exact, the wait is the hard part (after a few weeks at least ) then you are good to go.

normally, you just pick the rock up, it should smell like ocean fresh, not like rotten fish, then you are good to go =)

(no need for heater in texas, your pump will give out plenty of heat already, high temp ==> faster decompose and bacteria, raise temp up to 80-82, so if you can't get there, then use a heater. 4 of my pumps keep me at 82 easily , need the chiller in my case, just kidding)

The length of cooking is depend when your nitrate cycle is completed. that is accelerated by good flow of current to bring O2 to the rock for growing bacteria, no light is just to kill off everything else

skimmer or not, your call.

Edited by bananags
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