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how to clean handed down rock COMPLETELY

N

nightmarepl

NJRC Member
So i found somone throwing out a tank that got nuked by who knows what that had alot of decent live rock in it how would you completely clean this rock to remove all pest and pretty much make the rock white again basically want to turn the rock into dry rock
 
diana a

diana a

Staff member
NJRC Member
Moderator
Use Dye & perfume free bleach. Go to the Dollar Store for the bleach. I've bleached rocks and its usually a 1 week process to be on the safe side. You could probably do it in less time. I soaked the rocks in 25/75 bleach/water ratio and then soaked in ro/di water for about 3 days with chlorine remover(changing water each day). You can also add another step with an acid bath as your 1st step. Careful though if you don't get all the bleach out of the rock, the acid bath will put off poisonous gas. Always do this outside and don't breath the fumes regardless of whether you think you got all the bleach. Gloves, goggles, and a crap load of baking soda are a must after the acid bath. I let the rocks bake in the sun for a week before they stopped smelling like bleach.
 
iTzJu

iTzJu

Officer Emeritus
NJRC Member
i would do a muriatic acid bath, then a bleach bath, followed by a week long air drying, then a 24 hour ro/di bath with prime then to finish it off a week long ro/di with lanthanum to remove any po4 bound to the rock.

a bit overkill but will be the cleanest rock.
 
iTzJu

iTzJu

Officer Emeritus
NJRC Member
the muratic acid will pretty much remove a thin layer of the rock. getting rid of any nasties that might be on it. the bleach will cleanse the rock and take care of any organics that somehow survived the muriatic acid.
 
N

nightmarepl

NJRC Member
iTzJu said:
the muratic acid will pretty much remove a thin layer of the rock. getting rid of any nasties that might be on it. the bleach will cleanse the rock and take care of any organics that somehow survived the muriatic acid.
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so buy the acid in home depot lets say dump the bottle soak for a day remove rinse all rock outside with the hose then soak in bleach i assume would be the process
 
iTzJu

iTzJu

Officer Emeritus
NJRC Member
dont need to soak for a day, i'd say 30mins to an hour, if you soak it for a day the acid will melt your rocks down. get some baking soda handy to neutralize the acid. go on youtube to see some videos.

again, you're dealing with acid, so use proper protection at all times and do this out doors since the soaks will bubble up.
 
N

nightmarepl

NJRC Member
iTzJu said:
dont need to soak for a day, i'd say 30mins to an hour, if you soak it for a day the acid will melt your rocks down. get some baking soda handy to neutralize the acid. go on youtube to see some videos.

again, you're dealing with acid, so use proper protection at all times and do this out doors since the soaks will bubble up.
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roger that! thanks for the advice guys!
 
jgraz

jgraz

And as an alternative to the muriatic acid you could use straight vinegar. But you would let that go for a full 24.
I've done bleach then vinegar many times and had great results every time.
The muriatic acid is just stronger......much stronger
 
N

nightmarepl

NJRC Member
jgraz said:
And as an alternative to the muriatic acid you could use straight vinegar. But you would let that go for a full 24.
I've done bleach then vinegar many times and had great results every time.
The muriatic acid is just stronger......much stronger
Click to expand...
so you fill the tub up with vinegar for 24 hours straight followed by the bleach then rinse soak dry soak ?
 
jgraz

jgraz

nightmarepl said:
so you fill the tub up with vinegar for 24 hours straight followed by the bleach then rinse soak dry soak ?
Click to expand...

My process is to fill tub with rock. Fill tub with rock and some pumps for movement. I usually just add a few pumps to keep things moving really nice. Cheap EBay or Amazon pumps works great for this, multiple smaller pumps vs one or 2 larger is preferred. Add water and bleach and let it go for 24 hours. I do this outside, so after 24 hours I just stick a garden hose in the tub and turn it on. Let that run for a while and just let it overflow. The pumps will keep things moving and the rinse will be very effective. After rinsing well, pour out all of the water, if you still have a faint bleach smell, you can rinse more if you want but its not necessary since you still have a goods ways to go yet. with rocks and pumps in place add vinegar. I go straight vinegar here, so make sure you buy enough. Its pretty cheap and usable for lots of stuff so I go overboard. BJ's and Costco will get best bang for the buck. I let the vinegar go for 24 hours. You will see a bunch of crap coming off the rock as it strips the outer layer. After 24 hours I rinse just like I did for the bleach. When its all done I give it a nice hose down with stream setting on the nozzle. During this you will likely see a bunch of sand seemingly coming out of the insides of the rock as the vinegar will have opened up a lot of new surface. afterwards just dry and use.

On the issue of bleach,
This is mainly to brighten the rock. Yes it will kill everything as well, but if you skip this, nothing is going to survive the straight vinegar/muriatic acid rinse. So if you are worried about the bleach, skip it and you'll be fine. The rock is not going to stay brite for very long once its in the tank.

So in short:
Tub with pumps
Bleach/water-24hours
Rinse
Vinegar-24 hours
rinse
Hose down
Dry
 
N

nightmarepl

NJRC Member
a
jgraz said:
My process is to fill tub with rock. Fill tub with rock and some pumps for movement. I usually just add a few pumps to keep things moving really nice. Cheap EBay or Amazon pumps works great for this, multiple smaller pumps vs one or 2 larger is preferred. Add water and bleach and let it go for 24 hours. I do this outside, so after 24 hours I just stick a garden hose in the tub and turn it on. Let that run for a while and just let it overflow. The pumps will keep things moving and the rinse will be very effective. After rinsing well, pour out all of the water, if you still have a faint bleach smell, you can rinse more if you want but its not necessary since you still have a goods ways to go yet. with rocks and pumps in place add vinegar. I go straight vinegar here, so make sure you buy enough. Its pretty cheap and usable for lots of stuff so I go overboard. BJ's and Costco will get best bang for the buck. I let the vinegar go for 24 hours. You will see a bunch of crap coming off the rock as it strips the outer layer. After 24 hours I rinse just like I did for the bleach. When its all done I give it a nice hose down with stream setting on the nozzle. During this you will likely see a bunch of sand seemingly coming out of the insides of the rock as the vinegar will have opened up a lot of new surface. afterwards just dry and use.

On the issue of bleach,
This is mainly to brighten the rock. Yes it will kill everything as well, but if you skip this, nothing is going to survive the straight vinegar/muriatic acid rinse. So if you are worried about the bleach, skip it and you'll be fine. The rock is not going to stay brite for very long once its in the tank.

So in short:
Tub with pumps
Bleach/water-24hours
Rinse
Vinegar-24 hours
rinse
Hose down
Dry
Click to expand...
awesome explanation thank you very much for this ill prob start this in the spring once im ready to setup the 75-90 gallon currently building the sump for it
 
_DZ_r€€f

_DZ_r€€f

hey do not put rocks in straight acid. Do 10;1 ratio. Meaning 9 gallons of water and one gallon of acid. Remember to pour acid to water never other way around. Keep rock in there for few minutes only and remove. It will have enough time to remove outer layer with bad stuff. Make sure u do it outside lol.
 
erics210

erics210

NJRC Member
iTzJu said:
i would do a muriatic acid bath, then a bleach bath, followed by a week long air drying, then a 24 hour ro/di bath with prime then to finish it off a week long ro/di with lanthanum to remove any po4 bound to the rock.

a bit overkill but will be the cleanest rock.
Click to expand...
Wow iTzJu...talk about overkill....lol
 
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