How do you clean rocks??

[PayasoDelMar]

Hey everyone. I finally got started on my new build and well.... i went to the beach and got rocks!!! woohoo. Well its filled with a bunch of junk, crabs, evil looking pods and who knows what else. ive left the rock outside drying so most of the stuff in there withers away but i want make sure the rock is as clean as possible before i put in im my tank and fill it up.

How do you guys do it? i was going to boil the rock in RO and was going to add some bleach to get the rocks all white. Now do I boil the rocks with the bleach at the same time? how much bleach do I add?

Thank you

 

[maidia]

Good for you. I put rocks with muriatic acid and white vinegar about 3 days when I brought rocks from Jamaica and St. Thomas, 2 days in RO/DI water and then put my sum. All look beatiful now. I don't like bleach.

 

[larder]

+1 for muriatic acid. It will still look dirty after you bathe it, but you will find everything scrubs off squeeky clean when you pull it out. Acid doesn't leave anything behind. Even after you rinse rock cleaned with bleach, it will still smell like bleach.

 

[PayasoDelMar]

ok. Another question, does the acid kill 100% of the hitchhikers that may still be on the rock?

 

[dez_2121]

where do you get the muriatic acid from.... is that the common name of it. not to hijack but i'm going to the bahamas next week and might pic up a few rocks thats why i asked

 

[maidia]

- Muriactic acid will kill all living thing in/out side the rock. The rock will be white out.
- You can find M. Acid at Menard.

 

[PayasoDelMar]

Ok thank you. one last question, how much acid to water do you use? i have tried looking online and get mixed answeres some say a 1:10 ratio of the acid to water, others say 1:4.

 

[maidia]

I put 1/4 gallon of M. Acid and 5 gallon of water. Since my rocks contained copper by that time, so I did 2 times with M. Acid (4days), one time with white vinegar (1 day) and washed the rocks with RO water (1 day) then let the rocks dried out for a week. Now all my rocks look very nice without copper. Hope it help.

 

[Jeff]

The acid removed copper?

 

[maidia]

I don't know for sure but the copper no more existed in my tank by then.

 

[ostrow]

IMPORTANT!

1. ALWAYS add acid to water, NEVER water to acid.

2. ALWAYS use in a heavily ventilated area, preferably outside.

3. ALWAYS wear gloves and eye protection (few of us do, but we all should).

You can get muriatic acid at any home improvement or hardware store.

 

[larder]

Yeah. You should probably read the label. Try not to store it around anything valuable. And whatever you do, don't roll up a ball of tin foil and insert it into the bottle...:lolspin:

 

[maidia]

ostrow,
Thanks for the warning. I forgot about it. I did my outside far away the house.

 

[PayasoDelMar]

I put 1/4 gallon of M. Acid and 5 gallon of water. Since my rocks contained copper by that time, so I did 2 times with M. Acid (4days), one time with white vinegar (1 day) and washed the rocks with RO water (1 day) then let the rocks dried out for a week. Now all my rocks look very nice without copper. Hope it help.

Ok perfect

IMPORTANT!

1. ALWAYS add acid to water, NEVER water to acid.

Hmmm. i probably would have messed this part up, thanks!

Yeah. You should probably read the label. Try not to store it around anything valuable. And whatever you do, don't roll up a ball of tin foil and insert it into the bottle...:lolspin:

C'mon you cant say things like that, now i have to try it lol

 

[larder]

Actually... you should not try it. If you want to know what happens there are videos on youtube.

 

[PayasoDelMar]

haha ok

 

[DaveBien]

:blown: And acid all over !!!!! DO NOT TRY IT.

 

[Falconeer]

Ah, the good 'ol Drano bomb. My chem teacher taught us that trick (though he refrained from demonstrating this one) and I of course went home and asked my parents if I could try it

I don't think they knew what it was because all they said was "Please be safe"

 

[PayasoDelMar]

Small update. i put the rocks in 10g of water and added 1/2g of the acid. I also found out the acid DOES get rid of copper and other metals

 

[MBasile]

I dont get why you would put it in acid? if your going to do that, why not just get some marco rock or dolomite or something? Isnt that the point of liverock, to introduce a bunch of life?

Just my $.02