Kessil

Cooking live rock and aptasia......

Kmooresf

Supporting Member
Ok, so it's been at least...................an hour since I have posted anything.

So naturally I figured it was about time! :bigsmile:

I have been reading up on "Cooking" live rock. Love the idea, and have some 10 plus year old stuff that is giving me serious algea issues. HOWEVER....The rock is COVERED in Aptasia that has been haunting me for years. It is well controlled with Peppermint shrimp and Aptasia-X, however I do NOT want to deal with it in the new tank if at all possible.

SO..........will "cooking" live rock also kill aptasia? I am just not sure it would be enough. I know it would be without light for a couple months, but I'm wondering if it would kill them? Most people say cooking still leaves lots of sponges and such on the rock. Although they do not need light to live. I assume the aptasia does?

Am I better off just bleaching the rock and letting it dry.......then re-cure it? Thanks for any thoughts.
 
Cooking the rock will not kill the Aiptasia, it will only cause it to go into hibernation. Aiptasia doesn't need light, it can survive on food alone.

If I were in your shoes I'd soak the rock in a strong hot water/bleach solution before cooking, that way you kill the Aiptasia and still remove the impacted nutrients.
 
tuberider said:
Cooking the rock will not kill the Aiptasia, it will only cause it to go into hibernation. Aiptasia doesn't need light, it can survive on food alone.

If I were in your shoes I'd soak the rock in a strong hot water/bleach solution before cooking, that way you kill the Aiptasia and still remove the impacted nutrients.

+1 just bleach it all and start over.
Then cook it.
 
What about adding kalk past? Not sure how much aptasia you have, but I've made a thick paste. Then I removed all rocks that have aptasia, then applied kalk paste it on each aptasia. It worked great. However, I do like Jeremy's and Jon's idea.
 
Muratic acid also works, it's like bleach on steroids! it'll even kill the cockroaches. it's really nasty stuff though and caution is needed.
 
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