Acid bath my rocks and still have HA

[johnvu713]

So I gave my base rocks acid bath 3 times and still have HA. Please help!!!

Nitrate 5ppm
Po4 0 with Salifert kit.
Ro water is 12ppm with brand new filters

 

[Bgoody]

new ro?

 

[johnvu713]

Ro unit is a year old. I just replaced the three filters that came with it.

 

[biecacka]

How long did you acid bathe them. I did bleach for 36 hours then acid for 7-10 minutes.
How long after your bath did you get the gha back? If its been awhile check your filters in your RO/DI unit

Corey

 

[johnvu713]

I bathed my rocks for about 30mins to 1 hour on 3 separate occasions within 24hrs. Then let them sit in the sun for a few hours after that they go in a plastic bin submerged in RO water overnight.

I get GHA 7-10 days after the bath. I replaced my filters last week..

Could it be that I leave the light on too long. My photo period is 1ohrs/day with HoT5 x6.

 

[luamada]

I think it is the light and check your phosphate. Add a phosphate reactor.

 

[johnvu713]

P04 0ppm with Salifert's kit. I'll try reducing photo period down to 7-8hrs/day and see that'll go.

 

[Sn8kbyt]

P04 0ppm with Salifert's kit. I'll try reducing photo period down to 7-8hrs/day and see that'll go.

P04 will show as 0 on all tests with an algae bloom that is consuming it.

 

[Sk8r]

Phosphate reactor...It takes several months for the phosphate bound up in rock and sand to leach out. It's like evacuating a bus: your water has to be clear of phosphate before the phosphate in rock and sand can leach out, etc. How many months depends on amount of phosphate. Hair algae won't grow in a tank with low phosphate.

 

[johnvu713]

Just added a reactor. Thanks!

 

[Timfish]

Ah, maybe your problem isn't the rock? I once got a couple of rocks form an aquarist that was giving up that were covered in hair algae and some humongous watermellon 'shrooms up to 5" across. I had an unused tank at the time and put them in with the intenition of trying to remove and save the mushrooms. As with many of my projects they were neglected for a while and much to my amazement the hair algae cleared up in a couple of months and didn't return even after placing the rock in a DT.

 

[johnvu713]

At this point I'm not even sure what it is. It's likely either undetected Po4 or my photo period needs to be reduced. Will try to combat both if I still have HA in a couple months down the road guess I'll be going FOWLR

 

[Reefin' Dude]

the acid bath will only remove the phosphates that were attached to the calcium carbonate dissolved by the acid. any calcium carbonate on the LR will still have phosphate attached to it. the acid does not go after the phosphate themselves. they are just collateral damage from the dissolution of the calcium carbonate matrix.

just let the bacteria to its job. the longer the calcium carbonate has been exposed to phosphates the deeper the phosphates will be in the calcium carbonate matrix and the more calcium carbonate you would need to dissolve away to remove any attached phosphates.

G~