Bleaching pukani rock, lid on or off?

[Stevenlatham01]

Just bought some pukani dry rock which has loads of dead things on it. Trying to cut my curing time down (and the smell) so have read about using bleach at a rate of 10:1 with water. I'm going to use a brute bin but can I put the lid on while the bleach does its work? I'm going to keep it outside so ideally need the lid on. Also some say keep it in the solution for 24hrs and others a week? What's do you recommend?

 

[homer1475]

Having dealt with dry pukani, I would acid wash it in muratic acid(there is a thread all about pukani rock and how to treat it), then treat with Lanthanum chloride for a while to rid the rock of phosphates(trust me, this is not a step you want to skip). Then place in a vat of salt water to cure it. Once cured, place in tank and add livestock slowly.

I would skip the bleach altogether and just acid wash it.

 

[Stevenlatham01]

What's putting me off using acid is it looks way too dangerous and you lose between 12 and 25% of the rock. I watched this video on YouTube and bleach looks so much easier to do.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tBIWAYnk9ks

I my do Lanthanum chloride after bleach.

 

[tjm9331]

I agree with homer, I acid washed my pukani and it didn't remove much of the rock also an added bonus to the acid wash is that it opens up all the pores in the rock making it even more beneficial.

I skipped the lanthanum chloride, maybe if I had done it I wouldn't have had such an outbreak of hair algae but they always say hindsight is 20/20

I also used bleach after the acid wash and it took forever for the bleach to get out of the rock, I soaked the rock in chlorine remover for 4 days and they still smelled like bleach. I had to eventually let the rocks bake in the sun for a week before they stopped smelling like bleach. When I do it again I'll skip the bleach and probably go with the lanthanum chloride wash.

 

[ktownhero]

I cured my pukani in a brute of saltwater for a few weeks then put it in my tank. I've never once had an algae outbreak and it's been a year on this tank.

My experience is anecdotal, sure, but as I always say I can't help but feel like many of you way overthink this and do dangerous, unnecessary things. Even if you do end up with phosphates leeching, you could just run a little reactor of GFO to manage it for a little while. That's easier and safer than soaking rock in acid or bleach.

But to each their own...

 

[Tripod1404]

I cured my pukani in a brute of saltwater for a few weeks then put it in my tank. I've never once had an algae outbreak and it's been a year on this tank.

My experience is anecdotal, sure, but as I always say I can't help but feel like many of you way overthink this and do dangerous, unnecessary things. Even if you do end up with phosphates leeching, you could just run a little reactor of GFO to manage it for a little while. That's easier and safer than soaking rock in acid or bleach.

But to each their own...

Same here, never had phosphate issues with my pukani rock.