Killing and curing rock safely?

[Courtney Dudoussat]

I bought a 180. Came with 100 pounds of rock. I see zoas on the rock but won’t be able to set up the tank for a while (gotta brace and reenforce flooring)
I don’t want zoas in my system anyways. I just want to kill this rock and create dry rock from it without potential palytoxin. I know it’s rare but I will never take the chance. So safe way to kill rock?

 

[James M]

Let it dry

 

[redfishbluefish]

You could simply let it dry out for some time, but I'd accelerate that by putting it all in bleach.

By letting it simply dry, the toxins will be around for some time. A friend put rock outside his house in the winter in freezing temperatures and about a week later went to move it (without gloves) and ended up with welts on his hands.

So again, tap water in barrels or I use a stock tank. With 100 pounds I'd use two gallons of bleach with whatever amount of water needed and let it soak for at least a week. After bleach, rinse a number of times and then let it dry out. It's now "dead" rock that needs to be cured.