Muriatic acid bath

[loglan]

Have a question for those of you who have done this with success. I acid bathed 70lbs of rock for 1 hour. Rinsed it off in ro water and then put it all in a brute garbage can with fresh ro water for 24 hours. I then repeated the steps again with a 2nd acid bath. My question is after the second soak of ro water is it safe to put into my tank? Tank is running now and is 10 months old. Thanks!

 

[redfishbluefish]

I never understood the acid wash thing....but that's for another post.

If it were a very small portion of your total rock, I think you could get away with it. Otherwise, I wouldn't put it in the tank. That rock still needs to be cured....given time for the death that was within to leach out...typcially monitored by looking at nitrates and phosphates. In addition, it needs to cycle. This can occur simultaneously, but still requires some time. All it takes is a heater and a little flow. No lights needed.

 

[loglan]

Thanks redfishbluefish. I'm kind of in a bind and was wondering if it was safe to put in now. I've got some rock leaching PO4 and running gfo but algae doesn't seem to go away. 90% of the rock in the tank is tonga branch and I just don't believe I have much biological filtration with that dense of a rock. Again thanks for the info.

 

[redfishbluefish]

This is dead uncured rock. It will release nitrates and phosphates and most likely ammonia. I can only tell you I wouldn't put it in my tank. You think you have phosphate now....unless cured, prepare for more.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

This is dead uncured rock. It will release nitrates and phosphates and most likely ammonia. I can only tell you I wouldn't put it in my tank. You think you have phosphate now....unless cured, prepare for more.

That depends on whether there are dead organisms on it still. That's one reason some folks also do a bleach bath.

The acid will remove previously bound phosphate.

 

[loglan]

Randy. So I did a acid bath twice and rinsed twice. Then scrubbed the rock in the ro water and checked for organisms. Been drying for 5 days now. Would it be safe to put in the tank? Any chance of the muriatic acid leaching into the rock?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

There's no concern about the acid as the rock buffers it. There may be some concern about dead organisms, if any.

 

[loglan]

Thanks Randy!

 

[redfishbluefish]

There's no concern about the acid as the rock buffers it. There may be some concern about dead organisms, if any.

I think it would be beneficial to the OP if you answer the question, "Would you put this 70 pounds of uncured dead rock in your tank?" I really think he's getting the wrong message.

 

[Salty1962]

Unless you cure all of the rock at one time, adding small amounts at a time would work but much longer timeframe than curing all of the rock and placing it in your tank at once. You will most likely still have a cycle you'll go through but not as bad IMO.

 

[loglan]

I'm going to put it in saltwater and after a few weeks will be checking phosphate levels and ph. I was more worried about the acid itself but I figured the rock neutralized it.

 

[Salty1962]

Main things are Ammonia and Nitrites, test frequently after adding.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I think it would be beneficial to the OP if you answer the question, "Would you put this 70 pounds of uncured dead rock in your tank?" I really think he's getting the wrong message.

I don't know. Depends on what it looked like. If it looks like clean calcium carbonate rock, I'd do it. If it looked like it had bits and pieces of dead stuff on it, I wouldn't.

I put 100+ pounds of xl tonga branch from Walt Smith directly into my fully running reef system without any concerns.

If he gets a burst of nutrients he may have to deal with it, but I assume the tank already has cycled live rock for dealing with ammonia, and I wouldn't think there will be much after dissolving away the outer layer of the treated live rock.

IMO, ammonia is the only immediate concern. I wouldn't bother measuring nitrite.

 

[loglan]

Thanks for all the info fellow reefers. This is why I joined this group. Well spoken people that are full of knowledge. Reef2reef is the BEST!

 

[Salty1962]

I don't know. Depends on what it looked like. If it looks like clean calcium carbonate rock, I'd do it. If it looked like it had bits and pieces of dead stuff on it, I wouldn't.

I put 100+ pounds of xl tonga branch from Walt Smith directly into my fully running reef system without any concerns.

If he gets a burst of nutrients he may have to deal with it, but I assume the tank already has cycled live rock for dealing with ammonia, and I wouldn't think there will be much after dissolving away the outer layer of the treated live rock.

IMO, ammonia is the only immediate concern. I wouldn't bother measuring nitrite.

Now I know too