Question about nitrate soaked rock

[Jonathan Troutt]

first im not sure if that is the correct term so bear with me.

I swapped out my rock and now have about 60lbs of live rock that came out of a system that had nitrate issues for almost a year.

Will bathing them in muriatic acid get rid of all this?

My thoughts are to clean it and then break it all down into small chucks and fill up a chamber in my sump with the rubble for bacteria. Kind of use it like you would those ceramic rings or porous rock used for bacteria.

 

[Fudsey]

Is there anything bad on the rocks? If not, I would use it as is. Nitrates are not the worst thing you can have and live rock will introduce a ton of good things to your tank.

 

[Jonathan Troutt]

Is there anything bad on the rocks? If not, I would use it as is. Nitrates are not the worst thing you can have and live rock will introduce a ton of good things to your tank.

I dont think there is anything bad on it. Some dried up algea currently. But my main worry i dont want to put it in my tank if it is going to leech nitrates into my water column.

 

[Fudsey]

Has the rock dried at all? If it has, you might want to bleach it at least. Muriatic acid will dissolve the rock to a point. Bleach mainly kills all the organics in the rock. I soaked my rock in bleach solution for a week. Then soaked it in rodi for about 3 days and let it completely dry in the sun for a week. This will get rid of most everything in the rock. Muriatic bath will do the same but will also dissolve some of the rock.

 

[Jonathan Troutt]

Has the rock dried at all? If it has, you might want to bleach it at least. Muriatic acid will dissolve the rock to a point. Bleach mainly kills all the organics in the rock. I soaked my rock in bleach solution for a week. Then soaked it in rodi for about 3 days and let it completely dry in the sun for a week. This will get rid of most everything in the rock. Muriatic bath will do the same but will also dissolve some of the rock.

Well believe it or not i dont have any bleach on hand but i do have acid. But to answer your question is has completely dried

 

[Fudsey]

If you are going to acid bath it, make sure you watch some vids on it and do it outside. It can be very nasty

 

[Jonathan Troutt]

If you are going to acid bath it, make sure you watch some vids on it and do it outside. It can be very nasty

Ive done it before....lol... last time i did it it was freezing cold out and didnt want to do it outside so i setup everything in one of my bathtubs opened the window in the bathroom and set a fan up. All i can do it laugh when i think about the chaos that happened.

 

[JPergamo]

I did the acid bath on my rock that was used in my cichlid tank for years. I love how it takes the entire outside layer off.

 

[crusso1993]

first im not sure if that is the correct term so bear with me.

I swapped out my rock and now have about 60lbs of live rock that came out of a system that had nitrate issues for almost a year.

Will bathing them in muriatic acid get rid of all this?

My thoughts are to clean it and then break it all down into small chucks and fill up a chamber in my sump with the rubble for bacteria. Kind of use it like you would those ceramic rings or porous rock used for bacteria.

I would suggest breaking it all down before cleaning it. This will help remove anything unwanted from inside the rock.

Also, here is a recent thread on the similar subject of removing phosphate from rock. Pay special attention to post #33 by Randy Holmes-Farley.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-to-strip-phosphate-out-of-a-dry-rock-pre-setup.602292/page-2

 

[Jonathan Troutt]

I would suggest breaking it all down before cleaning it. This will help remove anything unwanted from inside the rock.

Also, here is a recent thread on the similar subject of removing phosphate from rock. Pay special attention to post #33 by Randy Holmes-Farley.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-to-strip-phosphate-out-of-a-dry-rock-pre-setup.602292/page-2

Ive read that before. I was curious if nitrates can act the same way phosphates do? Can nitrates soak into a rock and stay there like phosphate?

 

[WVNed]

I used rock from my own FOWLR system with high nitrates. They grew algae on them for a while then it went away.

 

[Jonathan Troutt]

I used rock from my own FOWLR system with high nitrates. They grew algae on them for a while then it went away.

What were your nitrate levels like when you tested for em?

 

[WVNed]

They ran around 80 in the FOWLR. It was very clean though because I used very little light on the tank.

They grew this

It went away with time.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Bleach it to remove the organics. Then cure and cycle it in a bin of saltwater with a heater and pump.