nuke live rock

HELLO REEFERS.just been reading the live rock page,i read that some people put the live rock in the microwave i know my live rock has been in my tank for 18 months,what possiable good does that do /

 

I might be wrong but I think people do it before putting the live rock into their tank to kill hitchickers...

 

It will effectively kill all of the hitchhikers, bacteria, protozoans, eggs, spores, etc.

There are many different methods of "nuking" liverock - or turning liverock into "base rock".

 

I think people also do it if they are planning on storing rock from a tank for latter after they brake the tank down.

 

It's mainly used before adding rock to a tank when the rock has unwanted hitchhikers like Aipstasia

 

Just leave it outside for a week. Do a rinse in fresh water to get the remains off and you're good to go. Your once live rock is now base rock.

 

People do it to kill hitchikers as said a few times above..

 

Sometimes common sense needs to be used.
Rock + Microwave = explosion.

If you want to “nuke” a rock to kill unwanted anything you soak it in bleach and water. If you want to make sure the new rock doesn’t have bad hitchhikers – put rock on cardboard and cover with wet newspaper and keep in dark for 30 minutes, quickly remove the paper and eye-spy for hitchhikers (need to be quick to smack them away from rock). You can also do a dip into fresh water – but anything you do should not include rock in a microwave.

You know, in Hawaii they dig pits and place hot rocks in them to roast a pig over. The rocks are reused so that the water has been long “boiled” out and the explosions have already happened. Exploding rocks puts rock fragments into the pig and would ruin the meal.