prepping rock before throwing in tank

[2t2_crash]

I picked up a great rock from the curry house dive with Wes, and now I need to prep it before throwing it in the tank.

the rock has a bit of algae on it and had some nice pink coraline on it... which is gone now. as soon as I got home I chucked the rock into a tub of water and vinegar... then I'll scrub the bastage.

cooking it is out of the question, lest I be strung up by the wife.

 

[reefnetworth]

you no longer have LR.
you have dead rock that has vinegar soaked in it which is going to cause pH ballance problems for awhile.
scrubbling it and vinegar bath, you killed all the bacteria, therefor you have dead rock.

it needs to be soaked in RO/DI that is circulated and heated for about a week, then poured out and replaced with SW also being circulated and heated for about a week to help with that issue.

 

[2t2_crash]

damn, oh well, looks like I'll have to clean the bin and rock, then refill with saltwater and cure it.
F@$#

 

[bethnjeremy]

why did you use vinegar to scrub down the rock? All you needed to use was hot tap water and let it sit til it cools then scrub it. Then cook it and put it back in sw and cycle it for a couple weeks. Cooking it makes sure you have cleaned everything off even if the rock is carrying leached phosphates in the pores.

 

[reefnetworth]

use a pinch of fish food to get it to cycle faster.
it will create the ammonia (NH3/NH4) nitrite (NO2) to nitrate (NO3) cycle without harming any living creature or using dead shrimp, as some people do, which will stink alot worse than fish food.

 

[2t2_crash]

jeremy: I had a bucket with water and vinegar that I was using to clean all my equipment and didn't think about it, so I just chucked the rock in there so I could scrub all of the algae and such off of the rock.

 

[bethnjeremy]

oops! it happens! lol. You are in no rush are you? lol.

 

[2t2_crash]

not anymore!

 

[tylersdad]

I can show you how to make some rocks, I have plenty of cement, just need to get some more sand. We can make caves and everything. I just made one today to stand in the rear corner of my tank. I put holes in exactly the same sive as the frag plugs I make so it should turn out well.

 

[2t2_crash]

I have sand, a bag and a half left over from when I reestablished the tank.