Bleach vs Acid
- Thread starter bheron
- Start date
therealfatman
In Memoriam
Just keep your coral soaking water's pH at around 7 or lower and it really does not require a lot of chlorine. It does not take a lot to kill microorganisms and that is all the chlorine should really be used for.
Acid or boiling water works better for vigorous cleaning. Acid is easily neutralized with a base such as Calcium Hydroxide or Sodium Hydroxide, and a simple pH reading will indicate that neutralization. Accurate low level readings of chlorine are not easily obtained even with the best meters and reagents.
HOCl forms at low pH's and OCl forms at higher pH's. The HOCl is much more effective at much lower concentrations than OCL prevalent at higher pH's. Excessive chlorine in conjunction with ammonia can mean the possible formation of monochloramine, dichloroamine and triclhloroamine to a smaller extent. Doesn't mean much then to have disinfected rock. The chlorine just kills microorganisms.
Also realise that chlorine works quickly. Most water treatnment and even waste warer reatment plants are only maintaining high levels of chlorine for an average of 30 minutes to an hour. One quarter cup to 5 gallons of water would be considered a very high concentration by a water or waste water treament plant. They are however only killing the organism not trying to physically destroy is very structure.
I have not read and research on how trichloromethane or trichloroethane effects corals and fish.
Acid or boiling water works better for vigorous cleaning. Acid is easily neutralized with a base such as Calcium Hydroxide or Sodium Hydroxide, and a simple pH reading will indicate that neutralization. Accurate low level readings of chlorine are not easily obtained even with the best meters and reagents.
HOCl forms at low pH's and OCl forms at higher pH's. The HOCl is much more effective at much lower concentrations than OCL prevalent at higher pH's. Excessive chlorine in conjunction with ammonia can mean the possible formation of monochloramine, dichloroamine and triclhloroamine to a smaller extent. Doesn't mean much then to have disinfected rock. The chlorine just kills microorganisms.
Also realise that chlorine works quickly. Most water treatnment and even waste warer reatment plants are only maintaining high levels of chlorine for an average of 30 minutes to an hour. One quarter cup to 5 gallons of water would be considered a very high concentration by a water or waste water treament plant. They are however only killing the organism not trying to physically destroy is very structure.
I have not read and research on how trichloromethane or trichloroethane effects corals and fish.
call me mark if lil mark flakes on you,ill give you a hand if im around.im going to wait to see how everything with your rock turns out
what I want to know is what is the treatment after the rock has soaked in acid ot get it ready for the tank
Just some fresh and/or salt water rinses is all it takes to remove any excess acid.
Just some fresh and/or salt water rinses is all it takes to remove any excess acid.
therealfatman
In Memoriam
Or add a teaspoon or two of draino drain cleaning crystals to your bucket to neutralize the acid in your water and rinse. It takes a lot of 7.0 pH water to neutrlize a lot of acid (very low pH near pH zero) in water. Does not take much pH 14 water to netralize acid in water. Water is cheap though, but it will take a lot more plain water as you are trying to rinse away versus neutralize. A combination of both is much easier.
Thanks guys for the help...
So is there any test that I could do to verify that all the acid has been neutralize?
Rightnow the rock has been soaking (cycling) for about a month and has gone thru a complete cycle. I was hoping to start puttng the rock back into the tanks this weekend.
So far I'm very happy with the results from the acid soak, the rock appears to be very clean (pest free) I guess only time will tell
Thanks again for all the input
So is there any test that I could do to verify that all the acid has been neutralize?
Rightnow the rock has been soaking (cycling) for about a month and has gone thru a complete cycle. I was hoping to start puttng the rock back into the tanks this weekend.
So far I'm very happy with the results from the acid soak, the rock appears to be very clean (pest free) I guess only time will tell
Thanks again for all the input
pH measurement is all it takes.
Sounds good.
Good luck.
Good luck.
Im going to bleach my rock in the morning.would it be better to boil it or bleach it?my aiptasia/bubble algea outbrake is calling for one of these treatments
how long do i boil the rock?im going to use a turkey deep frier,so ill be out side.plus people say it smells like boiling crab leg.....I LOVE COOKING CRAB,THE BEST.who does'nt like crab legs.
Anyway,how long do i let them dry out and when do i put then back in the DT?Do i need to do a cycle?
Now if i bleach it how long do i let it soak?how long is the dry time?cycle?when can it go back in the tank?
Thanx guys/gals,ive done alot of reading to get rid of my issues and at this point i want to start over as far as the LR is concerned.
No big deal,now i can stop being lazy and clean some things up and frag all my softy for future sales..:smokin:
how long do i boil the rock?im going to use a turkey deep frier,so ill be out side.plus people say it smells like boiling crab leg.....I LOVE COOKING CRAB,THE BEST.who does'nt like crab legs.
Anyway,how long do i let them dry out and when do i put then back in the DT?Do i need to do a cycle?
Now if i bleach it how long do i let it soak?how long is the dry time?cycle?when can it go back in the tank?
Thanx guys/gals,ive done alot of reading to get rid of my issues and at this point i want to start over as far as the LR is concerned.
No big deal,now i can stop being lazy and clean some things up and frag all my softy for future sales..:smokin:
Bleaching will remove the dead organisms, boiling will not. Boiling will not have any concerns about residual bleach. So there is a trade off, but I'd pick bleach, myself.
thank you randy.
how long do i soak it in bleach?whats the dry time?and do i need to cycle it after it dried out?
ive looked for a thread about doing this treatment but have not luck.i dont want to mess this up,the rock is about 4 years old(in my tank).
thank you for your help
how long do i soak it in bleach?whats the dry time?and do i need to cycle it after it dried out?
ive looked for a thread about doing this treatment but have not luck.i dont want to mess this up,the rock is about 4 years old(in my tank).
thank you for your help
Timing will depend on how much organic crud is on it, but overnight in 10% bleach may be adequate.
If all the organics are off, it will be like dead base rock in terms of cycling.
Drying is slow, but can be accelerated by rinsing and/or dechlorination treatment.
If all the organics are off, it will be like dead base rock in terms of cycling.
Drying is slow, but can be accelerated by rinsing and/or dechlorination treatment.
how will i be able to tell drying is done and its time to cook the rock?
thanx randy
thanx randy
How do you plan to "cook" it? You may be able to replace that step with an acid bath.
Randy,could you help me through the steps?ive never had to do this before and dont want to mess up.all im trying to do is kill a aiptasia out brake and minor bubble algae.the aiptasia's are bad.
so ive done EVERYTHING to try and rid these pest with on luck.my pepperment s are looking at me now laughing,i even think one is sitting on one...lol.the tank is not going anywhere so i want to just clean the rock of all pest and start over.new aquascape,new clean rock etc.,etc..
thank you randy for all your help
so ive done EVERYTHING to try and rid these pest with on luck.my pepperment s are looking at me now laughing,i even think one is sitting on one...lol.the tank is not going anywhere so i want to just clean the rock of all pest and start over.new aquascape,new clean rock etc.,etc..
thank you randy for all your help
i was just going to throw some krill chuncks and re-seed it with new rock.
I don't really have a detailed recipe/plan for this, but a number of folks have used it.
If you are convinced you want to kill everything on it, I'd first soak it in 10% bleach/90% tap water (or RO/DI) overnight. The rock will probably look clean, but if it has apparent organic crud on it, I'd brush it off and then I'd repeat with fresh bleach.
Then rinse well in tap or RO/DI and we'll get to acid rinsing if you want to try that.
If you are convinced you want to kill everything on it, I'd first soak it in 10% bleach/90% tap water (or RO/DI) overnight. The rock will probably look clean, but if it has apparent organic crud on it, I'd brush it off and then I'd repeat with fresh bleach.
Then rinse well in tap or RO/DI and we'll get to acid rinsing if you want to try that.
