Bleach vs Acid

[gwenvet]

Just checking in to see how everyones rock turned out and weather or not there were any problems when adding the rock to the DT.
I have been soooooo slow that my rock is still in water in my basement. I just dechlorinated it and added salt water and a cup of live sand. Am I right to assume that it needs a heater? How often do I need to do water changes before adding it to the DT?

 

[Hammsreefbeer]

damn,your way behind.forget about the sand and get some LR from a local reefer to seed it.i let it seed for about 6 weeks before i put it back in my DT.the big thing is to watch the cycle.ammonia,no2,no3 then when your po4 is at its lowest slowly put it back in the DT.Ill post pics,i pegged my rock before putting it back and im very happy w/ the way it turned out.good luck.

if you dont have a skimmer you can hook up to it then id do small WC's like twice aweek.

 

[crharvel]

Good thread with some good tips... just missing photos!

I did a hundred or so pounds of a mix of dried out fiji and marco rocks. Did two rounds of a 10:1 bleach solution 48 hours each soak with a good swishing between rounds. Used Prime to dechlorinate for another four days and another three days of airdry.

Before:

This was the remains of all the organics that oxidized out (ewww...) :

After:

 

[Hammsreefbeer]

update pics......before..

[/IMG]

after.....

[/IMG]
cant realy see the rock but this is what i have.after shot is less 60 lbs of LR in the DT.

 

[Hammsreefbeer]

ill get some better pics later.thanx

 

[gwenvet]

That's some really nice rock Chad. After all this work all mine wasn't worth the $100 I paid for it!

 

[therealfatman]

Where I live base rock that is quite plain and just ovoid in shape still sells for $8 per pound without even any signs of coraline algae on it. Quality base rock is about $15 per pound. Aragonite sand is $45 for a 20 pound bag and there is nor aragonite sugar sand available most of the year.

 

[crharvel]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15179717#post15179717 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by therealfatman
Where I live base rock that is quite plain and just ovoid in shape still sells for $8 per pound without even any signs of coraline algae on it. Quality base rock is about $15 per pound. Aragonite sand is $45 for a 20 pound bag and there is nor aragonite sugar sand available most of the year.

Wow... guess the fed ex and ups folks know you well. Supporting the LFS is tough when the mark ups are that high.

 

[therealfatman]

I try to avoid the UPS and FEDEX folks but not many retailers or wholesalers will ship by airport to airport freight. Pretty much only The Florida live rock aquaculturists an some salers that sell full boxes of rock straight from overseas. To where I live FEDEX and UPS charge about four times what it costs for airport to airport freight. Needlees to say I do not buy less than 100 pounds at a time and order only from salers that will ship airport to airport. Airport to airport charges for a minmum of 100 pounds then by pound over 100 pounds.

 

[bheron]

Great pics chad. And gwenvet good call for an update.

I'm in the same situation - its been a Loooooooong process b/c of other things ive got going on. But here's what I did:

- soaked in a 10:1 solution of bleach and RODI about a week
- swished in clean RODI and air dried for a few days in the sun
- dipped in a soluiton of RODI and Muraitic Acid! Maybe a 10:1 ratio?
- swished in clean RODI
- let is sit for a few weeks in RODI (like 4-5 weeks)

The whole acid process was crazy! Things bubbled and bubbled and I guess some bad stuff came off the rock, along with some good stuff. The idea was to remove a layer of phosphate, I think. Anyway, alot of gunk in the bottom afterwards.

It was sitting in the RODI for so long that I finally decided to check the water for chlorine - no detection. My next step is to put it in a container of water directly from my DT to see if the key parameters change, notable PH.

Why are you all seeding your new rock seperate from the DT? Is there a concern? I was going to plop it right in the DT as base rock and let the existing LR seed it. No?

 

[therealfatman]

Mixing chlorine bleach and an acid causes the release of chlorine gas. That is why your chlorine disappeared. The rock can now be placed directly in the DT tank as the chlorine is gone. The acid actually removes a layer of the rock itself along with any copper or phospahe in or on that surface layer of rock rather than just removing phosphate from the surface.

 

[bheron]

Ah, thanks for the clarification! Yea, the acid was really fizzing and it was tough to hold the rock in there too long before the bucket overflowed with foam.

So, what about the acid effecting the PH of my DT? Is that possible?

 

[bertoni]

Once the rock is clean and rinsed, the acid will be gone (almost entirely) and there will be no further effect from it. Did I answer your question?

 

[billyWhite]

I'm with you guys - I think I actually forgot about my rocks for a few weeks. I put a lot of baking soda in my container to try to neutralize the acid, then I rinsed them off and put them in tap water with about a half bottle of Amquel Plus. I think about a few days later, I rinsed the rocks off and soaked them in tap with the other half bottle of Amquel. I probably went overboard with the dechlorinator but that's alright. For the past few weeks, they've just been chilling out in tap water waiting for me to get off my butt. I hate to admit but I'm somewhat dreading lugging all those rocks back into my tank - these things are huge! I may keep a few of the bigger ones out, we'll see. I don't have a good photo of the tank in its before-state, but once I finally get everything back in, I'll post a photo.

 

[therealfatman]

When acid is used in the water after chlorine has been used chlorine gas is produced so the netrualizer was just wasted if used after the ccid was added or used. The amount of gas created when adding the acid that is dependant on the amount chlorine that remained in the water. If a lot of bleach was used and the water not drained and therefore the chlorine concentration not reduced the amount of toxic gas produced can be quite large. The chlorine water should always be discarded and new water put in with the rocks before acid acid, even vinegar. Otherwise the Amquel should be used before the acid for safeties sake.

 

[billyWhite]

Thanks for the explanation - I must have previously misunderstood or mixed up my steps.

 

[MO Will]

What do people do after the LR is cleaned up with bleach and acid? Is there any role for seeding the rock with a detrivore kit to help repopulate?

Thanks

 

[bertoni]

There's a lot of ways of reseeding live rock. A kit of some sort might be useful, and many people choose to add some new live rock.

 

[bheron]

I'm about to reseed my rock with live rock now. No idea how long it might take to fully reseed? I've heard 6 months?

 

[bertoni]

There's no telling. It'll be doing denitrification sooner than that, and that's the critical part for most of us.