Bleach vs Acid

[Korrine]

Not many pics in here. If it's alright I'll try to document with photos too! Will start with:

Got my bleach, acid and PPE!

My reason for muratic acid are the reports I'm hearing from others having problems with their Pukani leaching Phosphate into the water. I did spray off my rock with a hose and had a lot of black gunk rinse off, including something that looked like the remains of a small fish! small goby or something.

Here is after I hosed it. Bottom rock is Pukani and top is BRS base rock

 

[Korrine]

I have a Reef Crystals bucket marked at the 3g point. Am using that to measure how much water will go in the rubbermaid. Will do the bleach soak in the basement with the laundry door closed and window open!

And...I should have listened to someone in my lrc...haha! They told me I might want to acid my rock. I had my display tank set up already!

Here's what it looked like before I took the rock out. I have only 3 pieces of rock on each side.

Here is the rock in my tub!

I am keeping my DT running during this so had to add about 3-4g of saltwater after taking the rocks out. I will also do a wc on my DT since that rock was already sitting in there for several weeks.

 

[Korrine]

now I'm putting my crappy clothes on to pull the rock out of the bleach water. Will put them on the driveway to hose off and then will fill the tub again with fresh clean water and pour on enough dechlorinator to treat 2400g of water...should be enough, I hope, lol! Then will add the muratic acid.

 

[percula99]

When I went through the process I never used regular tap water. I used only RO watrer for all rinsing.

 

[Korrine]

I use tap water to rinse most things. Carbon, gfo, new equipment, etc. Hosing off the rocks with it is fine. I'm not soaking them in the tap water, just rinsing the bleach off.

 

[Korrine]

It went ok. I'm NOT thrilled with how much a few pieces of my rock were eaten away! More than I wanted and I only let them sit in the acid for 10m before stirring in 1.5lbs of baking soda!

Here's kind of a time lapse.

Crudy water after the bleaching

Sediment and what not in the bottom of the tub

Rock rinsed and now sitting in the dechlorinator bath.

And here comes the acid!!! Hold on to your buckets...

 

[Korrine]

We had the hose on to quickly dilute the runoff.

calming down

now the rocks are sitting on the deck

 

[bheron]

Korrine - great update and pictures! Your pics look right in line with what I've experienced. Thanks so much for posting it here. Only one comment to make is about the rinsing process. From what I've learned, specifically on this thread, is the Acid should remove any chlorine. So not sure the dechlorinator is necessary. In my experiences, after the bleach my rocks reek of chlorine. After the Acid, its gone. I also tested for chlorine and it was not detectable.

So nice job and thanks for documenting!

 

[cjscott]

Ok so I really want to acid my eco rock that I got from brs. Once i add baking soda to the bath is it safe to dump in the street? I live in a condo and there is a street that runs between the garages. I don't want to stain the street.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I wouldn't want to comment on what might be illegal dumping in your area, but once it stops bubbling on adding baking soda, it is neutralized and is no longer acidic.

 

[cjscott]

Any idea where I can find what is illegal dumping in my area. What about just dumping it in an open field?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Not sure what agencies are in your area, but something like a state Department of Environmental Protection can tell you about dumping in you area.

 

[bertoni]

You could ask the water treatment department. That's what I'd do.

 

[miguelp19]

So does the acid completely "renew" the rock per say? Or is it necessary to bleach it first? I figured this since its claimed that the acid neutralizes the bleach.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Acid won't neutralize bleach. It will convert it into toxic chlorine gas.

The acid and bleach do different things to the rock. Bleach removes organic matter, while acid dissolves away some of the rock surface, but may leave organic stuff behind.

 

[sean04]

Are you supposed to use a powerhead to keep the water circulating when doing the acid dip?

I used a powerhead with the bleach but I'm not sure if I should use the pump for the acid dip?

Thanks.

 

[bertoni]

There's no need for a powerhead, and the acid might do a lot of damage to one.

 

[sean04]

How long should i leave it in with the acid bath?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

That's hard to know. It might depend on how badly the rock is contaminated, and with what. But I would not think that more than an hour is necessary. Maybe only 10 minutes.

 

[sean04]

Thanks guys. I ended up leaving it for 20 minutes. How long do i need to let it soak in RO water before its ready to be used in my tank?