Pukani Acid/Bleach wash or not

[KnH]

To acid/bleach wash Pukani to start to cycle dry rock or not to,
I have ordered a 90-gallon tank with 4 – 8 weeks lead time. I wanted to get a head start on cycling the dry rock and maybe skipping some of the ugly stages by start cycling is a 55g barrel. The rock is pukani and from BRS video it’s kind of dirty with phosphate and dead stuff.

I can do an acid/bleach wash and then cycle the rock with bacteria in a bottle with adding ammonia or just do a freshwater rinse and cycle with all the dead stuff on the rock & with bottled bacteria.

I am thinking that I would get more diverse bacteria without the acid/bleach wash.

 

[Antics]

Bacteria is going to propagate and diversify with time. The more you introduce to the aquarium the less "sterile" it will become even with dry rock. Because of that -- I'd recommend bleach or acid cure if you want to try and mitigate some of the issues Pukani has. If you've used it before (which I imagine you have due to the age and difficulty in sourcing Pukani) then you should be aware of the nutrient and leeching issues that it presents.

I personally bleached Pukani for a recent build and did it over about 12 weeks. The length of time was just due to laziness and lack of urgency, not something I necessarily am recommending. It's been in saltwater for three months now and I've completely skipped the issues I've experienced with Pukani in the past. Knock on wood.

YMMV.

 

[PatW]

I bleached my dirty dry rock first. I dumped the rock into a large plastic container (bout 30 gallons and 170 lbs of rock if memory serves). I filled it with tap water and a cup or two of bleach. I let it go over night. Dumped out the bleach, rinsed with tap water and I forget if I repeated or not. Bleach oxidizes organic matter. The idea was to bleach repeatedly until the rock looked fairly white.

I also acid washed. I think I did the tap water fill and dumped in 1 cup of muriatic acid. The muriatic acid takes calcium carbonate (which is what dry rock is) and turns it into C02 and CaCl2. The idea is to remove a thin layer of rock and hopefully most of the phosphate on the rock. But doing an acid wash destroys some rock. If you do it enough, you end up with no rock. So it is your call on how fiendish you get with this.

 

[Jekyl]

Gulfliverock or kp rock would be a nice addition if you have time for it.

 

[KnH]

I have 8 weeks to get a jump on a cycle to get things moving along

I've had this rock for a while waiting to be used, back when BRS had lots of it for sale. It's just been waiting on me to do something with it. So Ocean waste is what I have to deal with when it was collected

 

[Rp8]

i would definitly bleach. i soaked my pukani for a total of 8 wks. the first six were in bleach. then a water change, and 2 wks in hose water. a quick rinse with rodi water and then in the tank. i prefer to introduce what i want, instead of taking a chance with the unknown

 

[Rp8]

soaked in bleach water. not straight bleach lol

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

Cure in a tub with just enough water to cover it. Change 100% of the water until po4 tests low or none. I would bleach first for a couple days. Good luck.

 

[KnH]

100% water change how often, weekly?

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

I think weekly should work. Make sure you have a good po4 test. I use the Hanna ultra low phosphorus. once you test extremely low or zero your good to go.

 

[waterskiguy]

Definitely bleach then acid cure Pukani. I always do because it seems to always have a buildup of po4, along with a bunch of different sponges and other organics. The bleach cure gets rid of the organics then the acid cure etches the outer layer of the rock, which, I would guess, is where such nutrients are contained? Pukani takes a LONG time to cycle either way. It has a lot longer "ugly" phase but is well worth it, in the end, IMO.