What should I do?

[smoreau1]

So I'm 2 weeks away from being ready to start cycling my reefer 250. I almost have everything I need and I just bought this beautiful live rock (around 70lbs) yesterday.
Now it's been rinsed and out of water since last night.

I'm thinking I want to bleach it and clean it with muriatic acid. Any thoughts? How should I proceed? So many different versions online got me so confused.

Thank you for your time

 

[thegrun]

The safest is to give it an acid bath (no need to bleach it if you give it the acid bath) since that will both kill any pests and remove any bonded phosphates.

 

[smoreau1]

Thanks thegrun, so I'll add the acid to the water 10 to 1 (1 being the acid). How long should I let it soak and what shout I do after?

Thanks

 

[runningrandy04]

I did a muriatic acid bath to my old funky dried out rock. It worked out rather well as my current cycle didn't start with the rock alone. Be warned about the dangers of using acid and have all safety equipment!! If your rock is caked in organic matter, you may need to use bleach as that dissolves organics. Do not mix the bleach and acid, ensuring to rinse in between. The acid sterilizes the rock and opens up the pores by dissolving the rock. That being said, acid treatment should last from 15-30 min. Have plenty of baking soda on hand to neutralize the acid after the treatment 4lbs per gal of acid is a good number. After neutralized, rinse..rinse...rinse with tap water. I then soaked in RO/DI water for a few days to leach any minerals or nutrients. Should be good to go from there.

 

[smoreau1]

Thank you runningrandy04, I will just do that and post pictures after I'm done. Would you say the bleaching part is about the same? 15-30 mins?

 

[smoreau1]

Can I use just any container to do the acid bath?

 

[ljosh]

Won't be live rock anymore

 

[TONY_C]

I'm still new to the hobby and still in the process of gaining knowledge before I take the plunge into SW. I am still trying to understand live rock and the benefits of using it vs. using non-live rock and seeding it with some live rock. My question to the OP, why would you buy 70lbs of live rock and then soak it in acid to kill off all the life on the rock?

 

[smoreau1]

I did the whole hitchhiker thing before and I want to start clean this time since the rock comes from another hobbyist.

 

[smoreau1]

Bleaching the rock: check

Tomorrow I will do the muriatic acid bath.

Now after that what should I do? I still need to buy a few thing and my manifold is not ready yet.

Where should I put the rinsed rocks for the next week or two?

Do I start curing in a bin?

Thanks

 

[thegrun]

Yes, get a jump on the cycle and start the process as soon as the acid bath is done.

 

[smoreau1]

I'm still new to the hobby and still in the process of gaining knowledge before I take the plunge into SW. I am still trying to understand live rock and the benefits of using it vs. using non-live rock and seeding it with some live rock. My question to the OP, why would you buy 70lbs of live rock and then soak it in acid to kill off all the life on the rock?

When you don't know the people you're buying from, why take the risk of unwanted hitchhiker? But really, I bought it all for $50 so live or not it was a great deal and the rocks are nice too.

 

[mitchb]

When you say Reefer 250 I assume you are setting up a 250 gallon tank? If that is the case you are going to need a lot more rock than what is shown in your photo, and some larger pieces in order to build a more asthetically pleasing reef.

 

[morpheas]

He's talking about the Red Sea Reefer 250 which counter intuitively is 54 gallons...

 

[smoreau1]

Sorry for the confusion mitchb, morpheas is right, I have a Red Sea reefer 250 (250 litres).

 

[Volcmreefer]

Following. I have to do this soon for my 75. Should he start a curing bin right after the acid bath or just rinse and place in the DT? Thanks guys!

 

[smoreau1]

Help please. I've been reading so much that now I don't know what to do anymore.

I did a two hours bleach bath yesterday, rinsed and left in tap water over night. I'm all set to do the acid bath now but I'm now very confused about what to do next.

Please, even a link to the right thread would be appreciated.

Thank you

 

[smoreau1]

Yes, get a jump on the cycle and start the process as soon as the acid bath is done.

What should I do exactly after the bath?