Crow
10-24-2011, 12:47 PM
65
Acclimating New Live Rock
Everyone has their own system for acclimating live rock. Most retail stores use a spray system where the rock remains exposed to the air. While this system does flush out crabs and worms and increases nitrification due to the added oxygen, I prefer an ebb and flow system whereby the vat fills and drains in cycles. This works well with two vats. As one fills, the other drains.
Elevating the rock on milk crates to separate crabs and detritus is a good idea. I used to keep the rock in milk crates so I could shake out detritus every few days. Setting up a power washer with saltwater works well for really dirty rock.
If you got an ozonizer with the RK2 protein skimmer you should hook it up to the temporary skimmers you have for the rock. Better still, drag the RK2 over to the vats. You don’t need or want a protein skimmer on the tank when it’s cycling, but the rock needs it now more than ever.
It’s only monster tanks like Peter’s that require the live rock to be acclimated in dedicated remote vats/tanks/tubs. If your tank is under 500 gallons, you can add the rock directly to the tank dry, spraying or splashing water on it periodically as you work.
I drill some rocks and place them over a PVC pipe skeleton. I also use an aragocrete cement mix to bond the rocks. This requires a day for the cement to set. Wrapping the rocks in wet newspaper or towels is enough to keep it alive. The cement causes a temporary pH & calcium increase and the rock needs a few weeks to get its “sea legs” so the rock acclimation process is carried out in the display tank.
As a general rule, I recommend that you purchase cured rock and let the local fish store go through the hassle. The added benefit is you can pick and choose your rocks according to your needs and what is available. Peter’s rock is direct from the source so it requires a few more precautions. It’s also hard to change 1200 gallons of water every week
In summary, as long as the rock is kept damp, it will remain healthy. From a nitrification/bacterial standpoint, damp rock is healthier than wet/submerged rock during acclimation. The various toxic forms of nitrogen (ammonia, nitrite, and to a lesser extent nitrate) are not an issue if the rock isn’t submerged in water. This is also true of oxygen and other gas levels.
I never liked the term “cooking live rock”. The term itself implies that you are sterilizing the rock. If you want to kill all of the good organisms in order to kill a few potential bad organisms, then the most efficient way to achieve this would be to bleach the rock, then dechlorinate it two hours later. The problem with going this route is you extend the cycling period from weeks to months and in the process, a lack of beneficial organisms leaves room for more opportunistic pests (cyanobacteria, diatom algae and dinoflagellates) to get a foothold. This drastic method of “cooking” leads me to wonder why you wouldn’t just use dead rock or portland cement-based aragocrete.
The other definition of “cooking” I’ve heard thrown around is the process of keeping the rock in the dark for a few months to kill off nuisance algae. It seems silly to me as a low nutrient tank will not have nuisance algae, so the problem isn’t the rock, but the water quality. The usual suspects we know as “reef parasites” are not photosynthetic so depriving them of light will do nothing for the cause.
Many of the reef parasites we encounter come from corals, and not from the rock so drastic measures in rock acclimating are often moot. As long as you have removed all crabs, mantis shrimp, and nudibranchs (sea slugs) you’re covered. There are a few macro algae species that can proliferate and take over, but there are chemical (1500 mg magnesium) and biological (herbivorous fish & inverts) methods of keeping them in check. Parasitic worms such as “red bugs” and flatworms enter the tank as hitchhikers on their coral hosts, and can be treated with dewormers like praziquantel (droncit), piperazine (entacyl), ivermectin or trichlorfon (dylox) .
In my opinion, the primary goal in live rock acclimation is to biologically assimilate the massive die off of macro organisms on the surface of the rock, and the greater die off of micro organisms within the rock. I know first hand from drilling core holes in live rock that there are large burrowing urchins and burrowing snails and nudibranchs deep inside the rock. It looks like Peter has made it through this critical die-off period and has done so without compromising coralline algae. This isn’t to say that coralline algae won’t grow on dead or artificial rock, as it will in about six months. It’s just an indicator of a broad biodiversity of life … more good than bad.
*Created by: mrwilson (http://www.reefpost.com/members/3-mrwilson)
Acclimating New Live Rock
Everyone has their own system for acclimating live rock. Most retail stores use a spray system where the rock remains exposed to the air. While this system does flush out crabs and worms and increases nitrification due to the added oxygen, I prefer an ebb and flow system whereby the vat fills and drains in cycles. This works well with two vats. As one fills, the other drains.
Elevating the rock on milk crates to separate crabs and detritus is a good idea. I used to keep the rock in milk crates so I could shake out detritus every few days. Setting up a power washer with saltwater works well for really dirty rock.
If you got an ozonizer with the RK2 protein skimmer you should hook it up to the temporary skimmers you have for the rock. Better still, drag the RK2 over to the vats. You don’t need or want a protein skimmer on the tank when it’s cycling, but the rock needs it now more than ever.
It’s only monster tanks like Peter’s that require the live rock to be acclimated in dedicated remote vats/tanks/tubs. If your tank is under 500 gallons, you can add the rock directly to the tank dry, spraying or splashing water on it periodically as you work.
I drill some rocks and place them over a PVC pipe skeleton. I also use an aragocrete cement mix to bond the rocks. This requires a day for the cement to set. Wrapping the rocks in wet newspaper or towels is enough to keep it alive. The cement causes a temporary pH & calcium increase and the rock needs a few weeks to get its “sea legs” so the rock acclimation process is carried out in the display tank.
As a general rule, I recommend that you purchase cured rock and let the local fish store go through the hassle. The added benefit is you can pick and choose your rocks according to your needs and what is available. Peter’s rock is direct from the source so it requires a few more precautions. It’s also hard to change 1200 gallons of water every week
In summary, as long as the rock is kept damp, it will remain healthy. From a nitrification/bacterial standpoint, damp rock is healthier than wet/submerged rock during acclimation. The various toxic forms of nitrogen (ammonia, nitrite, and to a lesser extent nitrate) are not an issue if the rock isn’t submerged in water. This is also true of oxygen and other gas levels.
I never liked the term “cooking live rock”. The term itself implies that you are sterilizing the rock. If you want to kill all of the good organisms in order to kill a few potential bad organisms, then the most efficient way to achieve this would be to bleach the rock, then dechlorinate it two hours later. The problem with going this route is you extend the cycling period from weeks to months and in the process, a lack of beneficial organisms leaves room for more opportunistic pests (cyanobacteria, diatom algae and dinoflagellates) to get a foothold. This drastic method of “cooking” leads me to wonder why you wouldn’t just use dead rock or portland cement-based aragocrete.
The other definition of “cooking” I’ve heard thrown around is the process of keeping the rock in the dark for a few months to kill off nuisance algae. It seems silly to me as a low nutrient tank will not have nuisance algae, so the problem isn’t the rock, but the water quality. The usual suspects we know as “reef parasites” are not photosynthetic so depriving them of light will do nothing for the cause.
Many of the reef parasites we encounter come from corals, and not from the rock so drastic measures in rock acclimating are often moot. As long as you have removed all crabs, mantis shrimp, and nudibranchs (sea slugs) you’re covered. There are a few macro algae species that can proliferate and take over, but there are chemical (1500 mg magnesium) and biological (herbivorous fish & inverts) methods of keeping them in check. Parasitic worms such as “red bugs” and flatworms enter the tank as hitchhikers on their coral hosts, and can be treated with dewormers like praziquantel (droncit), piperazine (entacyl), ivermectin or trichlorfon (dylox) .
In my opinion, the primary goal in live rock acclimation is to biologically assimilate the massive die off of macro organisms on the surface of the rock, and the greater die off of micro organisms within the rock. I know first hand from drilling core holes in live rock that there are large burrowing urchins and burrowing snails and nudibranchs deep inside the rock. It looks like Peter has made it through this critical die-off period and has done so without compromising coralline algae. This isn’t to say that coralline algae won’t grow on dead or artificial rock, as it will in about six months. It’s just an indicator of a broad biodiversity of life … more good than bad.
*Created by: mrwilson (http://www.reefpost.com/members/3-mrwilson)