live rock restart
- Thread starter paul17
- Start date
HoIyGhost
New member
Just went through that process for the rock in my DT. Was alot easier than I thought it would be and I have had no issues since introducing them into my system. I was able to find every thing I needed at Lowes at pretty reasonable prices. I used fda 5gal buckets for the bath, made it easier to drain the neutralized solution than using a huge tote or garbage can. Filled each bucket a little less than half way with rock and filled each bucket with water until the water covered the rock, I used 1 part acid to 4 parts water, used small measuring bucket that I picked up from the paint section at lowes to measure the acid, slowly add the acid to each bucket of rock. I used a few paint stick/stirrers to agitate the solution zand let them soak for 2 hrs. Once they stopped bubbling and fizzing I added baking soda a little at a time until there was no reaction, fizzing and bubbling. After that I put a large pasta collindar over an empty bucket and slowly drained the solution and placed my new base rock on a tarp and rinsed them down with fresh water. I rinsed the rock several times a day for three days and let them soaked in fresh water inbetween rinses. Extremely important to rinse the rocks properly. After that I put all the rock on the tarp let them dry in the sun for a couple days. Took a little time and effort, but being 100% sure I wasn't introducing pests, phosphates or any other kind of problem into the tank made it worth while. Make sue you do all this outside in the open air, use proper gloves that do not melt with the acid, use a mask (doesn't have to be a respirator), and start earlier in the day so you have plenty of time to complete the project. Hope this helps and if you have any questions I will be happy to answer them.
Lol
thanks guys for your help
