Cooking rocks in the winter time

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pascal32

New member
I'm getting ready to cook the rocks in my 72. An end to an era of Aptasia that wouldn't budge. I'll be following the same method as Mark (http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1914426&highlight=cooking)

- 24 hours - 1:10 (or stronger) ratio of bleach to water
- rinse with thoroughly with tap water (slight deviation here - Mark used RO)
- 2 hours - 1:10 ratio of muriatic acid to water (add acid to water) - add a little at a time, wait for bubbling to stop
- deactivate with baking soda

No room in the garage, basement doesn't seem like a good idea. Any issue with letting this rip outside in the freezing cold?
 
Ughhh!!! That's frustrating. I assume you did the standard peppermint shrimp, copperbanded butterfly? And it's a swarm that would be to intense for Kalk paste?
 
Fought it for a while and gave up. Not worth the hassle. The rock is fantastic other than these pests- at the end I will stand victorious!
 
TMZ knows much more on the subject, but I would NOT recommend soaking rock with Muriatic acid shortly after soaking it in bleach; doing so can create some really toxic fumes. If you are going to go that route, be sure to let the rock completely dry out for a long period of time before soaking in acid. Honestly, a bleach soak followed by an R/O bath should be more than enough to kill any living object on that rock. The only issue with doing this outside is the obvious risk of freezing.
 
I like that attitude!

If you have a spare powerhead and small heater you would reduce the risk of freezing. But then again, upstate is large if you are near ft. Drum and have some of that nice below zero weather that won't help too much.
 
Pascal , im not 100% here but i too believe that the bleach would kill off any life . you may want to ck with Mark and see what the purpose of the muriatic acid was . i my self have used the muriatic acic for cleaning powerheads and rocks with only a rinse and have had no issues . ummmmm honestly i have used the acid ,rinsed in tap water then put right back into my tank or sump without drying them out .i have to add that i have 300 lbs of roch and i have done this with a small amount of rock maybe 10 lbs at the most each time without a problem
 
Dave -

As I understand it the bleach will kill off life as you mentioned. The acid will remove the outer layer of teh rock taking any phosphate with it. The tank has been good on phosphate, but since I'm out there with a bin, why not. The acid is only going to be $25. I plan to use the rock for a little tank project I have in mind :)
 
Honestly knowing how meticulous you were about maintining low levels of phosphate ,and knowing the tank was up less than a year.Im with the others and doubt you would need the full treatment.Bleach should kill off and break down the living stuff.I believe muratic acid is more for dissolving off any bound up metals/po4 and probably wouldn't be necessary. Your call though.

As I understand it,you can neutralize the bleach with either drying whitch would likely take a least a week to a couple weeks or by using a dechlorinator prior to an acid bath.

If you dont mind me throwing out a possible alternative here,you could do a bleach bath then use a dechlorinator and rinse,then ,(if you think you need to strip it further) vinegar in place of muratic acid whitch you should be ok to do say in your garage.Neutralize that with baking soda ,rinse with a garden hose and you should be good to go.
Just a thought,gl with what ever you decide.

-Steve
 
I like the vinegar idea, though muriatic acid is a ton cheaper. I'm sure the rock is fine, for the $25 I figure hit it with acid. I already have other rock ready to go so no rush on this bunch of rock.

Sounds like it will be outside in the snow with two heaters, now to find extra heaters...
 
The bleach is an all purpose killer. It will destroy organics on the rock.
The acid acetic or hydrochloric/much stronger (muriatic is 37% hydrochloric acid))will dissolve some of the rock and remove metals and PO4 that may have accumulated. The fumes are very bad,ime. I don't know how the eactions react to significantly colder water temperatures.



If th4 concern is just just phosphate a bit of curing and testing in a bin of water with a powerhead treated daily with some lanthaum chloride to keep the surounding water at 0 PO4 might be less of a problem than an acid bath. Once there is no evidence of leached PO4 per tests for aweek the rock should be good to go. I'd personally put it in salt water but some use fresh. Then I'd test it after a few days to see if any leaching is occurring before doing either an acid bath or LACL dosing.
 
You could do the bleach portion in the garage then air or fan dry. Or one of those salamander heaters. Then do the muriatic acid bath outdoors. Not like I stuck my hand in there, but from what I recall its an exothermic reaction. The acid treatment itself is only 3 hours. Neutralizing with baking soda takes a bit longer but if you keep a heater in there and aggitate it with powerheads it wont freeze.

Personally, as far as anemones go, I just don't trust anything other than the acid bath to irradicate them.
 
I like the idea of the acid bath to be sure you're burning off all the dead stuff the bleach bath killed. I don't trust rinsing/scrubbing to get all the crap off the rocks.

I would be nervous about having heaters in the bin DURING the acid treatment. I guess in theory the glass would be impervious to the acid, but I'd hate to see the heater somehow breached by the acid. Putting them in afterwards with the baking soda during the neutralize sounds fine though.

Also, I'd be nervous about using a salamander heater near the bins if they were open-topped, since IME they tend to throw a really fine mist of oil/soot that might cause some contamination.
 
I ran powerheads in my bin before, during, AND after the acid bath. No damage. But, I'd agree Nate. My intent was for him to add the heater once the acid had been neutralized to prevent freezing. This week has some warm temps projected. Just get it in the bleach and get that step covered. If you can figure out a way to dry it to your satisfaction and evaporate off the chlorine, then you'll be poised to seize the opportunity when we get another couple of warm days.

You can always let them MOSTLY dry on cardboard in the garage. Once the chlorine odor has dissipated, move them into the basement for full drying. Use a fan? Put a light on them to add some heat to help evaporate the excess moisture? You are, afterall, an engineer no? I'm sure you'll rig something up.
 
The bleach bath not only kills organics it oxidizes them to non existnce. I often use some bleach 50 /50 in a coffee can for cleaning used farg plugs and rocks or falied frags. After several hours in a bath nothing is there except clean aragonite. If PO4 or metals(like rock exposedto copper treaments ) are not a concern and acid bath is probably not needed.
 
This past summer I used muriatic acid to clean and etch the inside of a rusty gas tank from my tractor. Seeing it eat through various materials (not to mention what happens when it hits the driveway) gave me a very strong sense of respect for what it can do. Goggles, gloves, long sleeves, etc - must haves. And don't let it touch anything you care about.
 
I worked with 12.5 % sodium hypochlorite (double strength bleach) and muriatic acid when I was working at a water park as a pool technician.

Muriatic acid is some nasty stuff, but it's not going to burn a hole through your skin if it touches you. If it gets on your skin, it will start to itch, then itch some more, then it will feel like your skin is burning. If you get it on your skin, just rinse it off in water within a minute or two and you'll be fine. I used to fix acid dosing pumps in my bare hands because of the dexterity loss in wearing gloves.

Obviously, don't get any on your mucous membranes or in cuts. Breathing in the fumes will take your breath away. In high enough concentrations, your natural reaction will actually to be to not breath in the fumes. Your body will not want to breath. Kind of scary at first, but then you take 2 or 3 steps away from the acid, and you're fine.

Honestly, the most important safety precautions you can take with muriatic acid is goggles or a full face shield, a respirator, and gloves. Long sleeves don't hurt, but they're not really needed. Don't wear any clothes you care about. Even a small drop will eat away at clothes.


The acid won't hurt your heaters or pumps in the couple of hours that they come into contact. Muriatic acid is shipped in plastic containers, and I've stored it in 2 liter soda bottles for months. Before plastic, glass was used to store the acid.


Honestly, I wouldn't be too concerned with the acid and bleach creating a dangerous gas cloud (it's a yellow/greenish color if you wanted to know). Rinse the rocks well, and there won't be much chloramines left in the water. Just do the acid outdoors.
 
Use muriatic you need it.water deactivated it, sorely thorough ringing and a goodies dry is all you need. Vinegars an acid similar to muriatic so why spend more time withstand? Vinegar is not any safer for your tank, just fyi.

Just keep it away from metal, including your pumps and heaters ( often have metal under to temp knob) as muriatic is caustic to metal.
 
has anyone tried freezing it. i put in a plastic 35 gallon can with no lights just a pump now for about 2 weeks. Going to take a piece out tomorrow and put in tank to see if it works.
 
Freezing would kill stuff, but not remove it from the rocks. The acid gives you the benefit of dissolving the outer layer of rock, which means any organics on the surface or bound in the rock are removed.

Unless you did some other treatment, I wouldn't expect two weeks in a dark vat to kill aptasia.
 
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