Bleach vs Acid

getting ready to do the acid bath, the rock is soaking in bleach. Question: after the rock soaks in the acid for 20 minutes, do you add the baking soda to it then or do you pull the rocks out 1st? Then do you just soak them in ro water for awhile?

Thanks

Kris
 
I would pull the rocks out first, most likely, but the order isn't critical. I'd rinse the rocks well, and then I might soak them a bit in RO water. After the soak is done, you could try a phosphate test on the RO. That'd tell you whether the rock is clean. If you're not interested in the phosphate test, there's no good reason to soak the rocks.
 
Just finished, took me about 1 hr total. Soaked the rock for 20 min after adding the acid. That was unreal!!!! added 3 boxes of baking soda to nutralize it, dumped some water out and started to dip each rock in a solution of ro and baking soda. Then dipped again in just ro. Put all the rock back into the trashcan (after rinsing of course) now letting my ro filter fill it up. I will let it run for a few hours, then add dechlorinator (forgot it at home) and let it sit for awhile. i plan on adding new sand and my "new" rock back into the tank sometime by the 1st of the week. Gotta find some bacteria in a bottle and wait.
 
Thanks John. That is what I thought.
However how much MORE does bleach get that the acid doesn't. I know they are used for 2 different things. But if acid eats a layer of rock wouldn't one assume it would kill the algae too?
Corey
 
i used to think the same thing. however, i think it works like this: bleach gets into all the pores of the rock that contains organic material throughout the rock. much more than may be contained in the thin outer layer.
 
will vary but doesnt matter. first time i did it for a few hours. next few times i did it for days. to me, the longer the better to make sure everything is broken down. and it depends on whether or not the bleach is "exhausted" or not. after awhile you could have no bleach "power" left and it wont make a difference. you can tell if there are still bubbles coming up.

sorry, i'm not scientist :-) so may not be 100% accurate but enough of a guide.
 
I switched it around but thinking in the end used a 5:1 or 3:1 water to bleach ratio. in the end i just loaded it up with bleach so who knows for sure. i wasnt worried about overdoing it and once i found it cheap, in bulk, at costco i didnt mind :-)
 
I don't know of any way to quantify how much extra the bleach will do for you. That depends on a lot of factors, and it's going to be hard to predict in any case.
 
Earlier in this thread (page 1 i believe), RHF said you can use 10:1 diluted muriatic acid or straight vinegar to clean phosphates and copper from rock. Will this work for sand as well? I have some sand I want to clean. will a straight vinegar soak followed by a thorough rinsing be sufficient?
 
I used vinegar because I didn't want to deal with the muriatic acid. Others used it though. Don't forget that a bath of muriatic acid diluted 10:1 with water or vinegar is still acid. Once the rock is submerged I got an action like alka seltzer bubbling up. This is eating away a layer of your rock. If left long enough it would eat your rock. I surmise the same thing would happen to your sand, and seeing as sand is so smaller it would eat away to nothing rather quickly. I would recommend a diluted vinegar/water solution if you wish and then a thorough rinse, several times if necessary with RO water.
 
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