help with my bleached LR

[cmacld]

So i had decided months ago that i was going to bleach my rock for my new tank... with that in mind i did much research on the subject... I made a mixture of 1cup bleach to 5 gallons of water... my plan was to leave the rocks in over the period of a couple days... however, i was called out of town for work and asked my roomate to take care of getting the rocks out of the tank.... Two weeks later.. i arrived home to find my rocks still in the tank =(. So i took the rocks out and dried them in the sun for a week! After that i took the rock.. placed in a tank with fresh SW.. and a day later i still had an extreme amonia levels.... with a few water changes and parameters not changing much... i decieded to boil the rocks.... i took a day and boiled 300 lbs of my rock.. (not a fun process, nor do i suggest it) so at this point i should have any and all ammonia from my rocks.. right? but now that i have them in a cycling tank once again.. i am still getting readings of ammonia in the tank.... no where near as extreme but still there

Has anyone made this mistake before? and how did you cure it? I dont want to loose all of this rock.. they are all prize pieces that i have been collecting for over 5 years..

I hope that this was posted in the right forum..
Any input would be great.. thanks in advance

 

[ludiNano]

Was it live rock that you bleached??

Because it think that would kill everything on it, making it dead rock with a lot of dead organic matierial on and in the rock.

The boiling would have takin some if not alot of it. But its probly just still cycling through the rest.

 

[Rick55555]

I would soak the rock in water with a decent dechlorinator and/or run some carbon to get the bleach out.

I would then place the rock in a rubbermaid container or tank devoid of all other life/livestock and let it cycle. A powerhead, heater and no light would probably be best.

Rick

 

[gillesec]

This may be a horrible idea, but ....

Maybe load a good amount of the rock in a dishwasher and run it on the hottest setting. Leave out the soap and the heated dry cycle. This may dislodge some of the dead matterial and is a might bit easier than boiling all of it.

Now cleaning your dishwasher after could be a concern

 

[Æonic]

... and explaining it to the wife...

 

[reefpatrol3]

I would think that no matter what you would get some sort of amonia readings for awhile. After all you basically killed everything on, and in the rock. so untill the rock recycles and starts growing new "stuff" you should still have an amonia reading. The bleach should not be a problem since you let the rocks air out for a week. Its just like your filter socks when you wash them with a capfull of bleach in the water. As long as you rinse them real good and air them out they are fine.