LIVE ROCK BOILING~~~ does it work?

[MrSandman]

I bleach rock all the time. Anytime i get fresh rock from the LFS i'll submerge them in RODI water and then pour in some plain, unscented bleach at a ratio of about 10 parts water to 1 part bleach. Then i'll let it sit for about a week (could probably do it with less time) and then pull them out. Then i'll rinse em off and let them soak in fresh RODI water for a couple more days, then change the water to fresh RODI water again. After the 2nd round of fresh RODI water i'll usually let em sun dry for a few days and then they are as good as new. Clean white rock. FYI, bleach will kill anything organic, i.e. bristleworms and aiptasia. You never know what comes on the LFS rock because often they will resell liverock that came from a service tank that was torn down.

 

[RandyFolds]

Ha...I guess he's sayin' I'm a fool.

Nah, it's just a hopeless, uphill battle. They are going to come back in on something...

 

[marfuerte]

ROBONE 20 got it right. I just can't see killing everything on the rock including things you'll never see or know are there but beneficial to our tanks. Aptasia are controllable and bristleworms are an essential part of your CUC imo.

 

[jefathome]

So what are peoples thoughts on Hair Algae? If you just take the rock and dry it out, the HA is still there and will come back strong afterwards. I know that the phosphates will limit growth. Do you think that "spores" can survive a dry sunlight period. I would think that they would... I would also think that only bleach, vinegar or coiling would work to kill it off 100%.

 

[LikeitSoft]

muracic acid.

 

[j5kidd]

So what are peoples thoughts on Hair Algae? If you just take the rock and dry it out, the HA is still there and will come back strong afterwards.

I'm curious about this too. I took out a bunch of LR that used to have a ton of hair algae on it. They've been sitting in my garage for about 5 months now and its turned into this flaky crust. If i scrub it all off, will it just come back?

 

[marfuerte]

cyano, hair algae all the PIA stuff will come back. I started a tank with new rock, devoid of any life. Looked great for a year but eventually cyano, hair algae and even aptasia appeared. I have had varying success with the standard things like aggressive skimming, kalk dosing, urchins. One of my tanks has bryopsis, nothing is working so I'm going to try tech m out but I'm planning on an algae turf scrubber to see if that works better than what I've been doing.

 

[psykokid]

muracic acid.

is great for removing heavy metals and the like.

to remove organics like algae, bristle worms, aiptasia, etc you want to use bleach. I mirror the above comments about going both routes ie bleach and acid to remove both.

phosphates and such can leach into the rock and sand then slowly come back out and fuel nuisance algae growth even though the water tests for 0 or minimal phosphates.

I usually dry out the rock in the sun for a week or so. This kills off the majority of things. Put the rock in a tub so the crud on the outside can get moist, pull it out and spray off all the stuff that died off from the bake in sun. Add bleach to your tub of water and let the rocks soak for a few days. I usually leave a junk powerhead in there to keep things circulating. Take the rock out, dump the water and then hose or pressure wash off again to remove stuff that got killed off in the bleach bath. Put rock in fresh water and add acid. Let sit till it stops foaming, dump rinse and repeat until it ceases to foam. Put rock in a tub of baking soda water to neutralize the acid and then rinse one last time with FW and its ready to be used.

There is nothing on the rock to die off so there will be no blip or cycle other than the one you caused by taking the rock out of the tank in the first place.

 

[Hwang]

can you guys possibly direct me to the bleach and muracic I should be using? don't want to mess up if i end up doing the process.

Whats the problem if I just bleach?

How do you guys feel about sun drying for 3 days, freshwater for 3 days, sun dry 1 day, fresh water 1 day? not enough?

 

[Hwang]

I want my rocks clean and white.

 

[Hwang]

anyone?

 

[psykokid]

bleach is just the plain old clorox unscented bleach.

muriatic acid can be found in the pool section of lowes or at a pool supply place. They use it do drop the pH of pool water.

should be a few dollars for a bottle of bleach and about 10 for the muriatic acid. Get a bin and do work..

 

[gcarroll]

before you do something that you may regret, read this thread.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=485572

As you will see, the term cooking rocks has nothing to do with actually cooking them. It might be the best way to rid the rocks of nuisance algae as well has phosphate that is bound in the rock. Like reefing, good things only happen slowly. It's the bad things that happen quickly.

If it is just to rid the rock of pests and such, lust stick it outside in the sun for a week or more. It's summer so it should dry up good.

 

[Hwang]

Picked up Clorox from Ralph's and made about 1:10~10.5 bleach:water mix.
The rocks are turning white after about 5 minutes of the dunking O_O

There were some NASTY looking worms (not bristle worms, looked more like earthworms...real FAT)

Will update if I get some more results ^^

 

[psykokid]

i had a bucket of rubble that i was rinsing outside with fresh water to get all the detritus out of it and had forgotten about it. Opened the lid a week or so later and it was full of stringy freshwater type algae. Hrmm no good.. dumped a cup of bleach into the fw and walked away. came back 5 min later it all the algae was gone..

 

[MrSandman]

I only use muriatic acid to clean my pumps, etc. of coralline algae. Wouldn't soaking it in the acid just dissolve your rocks? After all, they are calcium based.

 

[Paramecium]

I would just cook them like others have said. Dry them in the sun for a week or so if you want then put them in a tub with a powerhead and a heater and cover them with a lid. Do a water change on it weekly getting rid of all the detritus that is coming out of the rocks. In a few months you will have great live rock that is algae and pest free.

I helped a friend do it to his rocks that were completely covered in hair algae and after a month or so they looked great and had no algae at all on them. Bleaching and acid dipping seem a bit extreme especially if you want to use the rock later, you need to reseed it with more live rock or sand if you kill the rock completely. Cooking it doesn't kill all of the biological life in the rock.

 

[popper231]

i bleached my rocks, bathed it in sun, then soaked in fresh water for a week. all good now.

 

[Hwang]

Okay, a couple of questions left. As of now, I have sun dried and bleached.

Does vinegar work the same as muriatic acid?
After rinsing the bleach with freshwater, does the bleach eventually evaporate out in my tank within a week? Or do i need to dechlorine? If I need to dechlorine, can someone direct me to a safe brand?

 

[psykokid]

no, vinegar does not work the same as muriatic acid. most vinegar is 5% acetic acid. muriatic acid that you would buy at for pool or concrete uses would be around 30% hydrochloric acid. completely different animals chemically. Only thing they really have in common is that they are both acids..