Cooking Liverock Question

colinadam · Sep 23, 2008

I have 2 large pieces of liverock (Large to me is like 8-10# each, nano-reefer here :) ) and they are growing this nasty macro/caluerpa mix seen here:

So I want to pull those pieces and try to scrub off as much as possible. Now odds are the stuff would come back.

Would cooking (Placing rock in a bucket with no light with a heater and flow) eliminate this algae long term?

Has anyone ever "cooked" liverock like this and if so what do you think of the process?

Thanks

Hypertek99 · Sep 23, 2008

Even if you cook it they can grow again. You need to fix the source of the problem. Could be phoshate, lights, anything?

colinadam · Sep 23, 2008

Well it started when I mounted some paly's to some dried out rubble and put it in my tank, this nasty algae took off from there and spread to my main rockwork. Before I realized what was going on it was to late.

I got a Tunze Skimmer on the way, plan on setting that puppy up this weekend which will help. Also my RO/DI could use some attention, have new prefilters, DI and a membrane which will also be installed shortly.

So with cooking the rock there is no guarantee it will eliminate the algae totally? I really don't want to bleach these two pieces as they have some nice coraline growth.

Thanks for the help Hypertek.