Muriatic or bleach? Semi-emergency upgrade.

[Mark_C]

The 10 year, no water change tank is undergoing an upgrade.
Upping it to a 90 cube and adding contents of a second tank to it.
Currently I have about 40-50 pounds of good rock in tanks, most of its been there for 5 years or longer.

I need to add another 30 pounds or so of rock saved from previous tanks - dried algae, life, etc... standard stuff.

I have to get these supplemental rocks prepped as fast as possible as this is a semi-emergency.
As such, they wont be going through a full cycle before being added to the tank.
They will cycle in tank with the existing 50 pounds of rock.

I have both muriatic acid and bleach.
Would like opinions on the fastest way to clean these rocks and get them into a thriving tank with minimal disruption.

This one has be stumped and debating, any advice or experience appreciated.

 

[horseplay]

Always muriatic acid. no problem.

 

[amado]

I have become an expert at cleaning rocks.
My vote is also muriatic acid. I have never used bleach.

 

[MadReefer]

How long do you have to soak/rinse to remove the acid?

 

[Goodair]

Isn't the main difference between the 2 methods is acid eats away at some of the rock?

 

[Bot587]

Just chiming in with the others... Muriatic Acid to get the rocks clean.

Muriatic Acid is essentially Hydrochloric Acid (HCl)...
-as a strong acid, you can use it to clean the rocks, proceed to dilute with water and utilize a reef safe pH increaser to neutralize the acid (or baking soda).

Make sure to use gloves and rotate the rocks (both during cleaning and neutralization - no air bubbles....).

People use vinegar as well (acetic acid), however acetic acid is a weak acid.


Why I don't suggest bleach:
When I use bleach (sodium hypochlorite), I tend to wash 5-10 times. The reason is in water the molecule that is oxidizing / cleaning, is chlorine. Chlorine will exit the water based on using a dechlorinator/free radical reaction with light. If the rock is extremely porous sometimes the chlorine is held in the rock as chloramine and can release later (rare).

 

[mnat]

Acid wash and dr Tim’s or something similar to really kickstart the cycle.

 

[Yates273]

Muriatic acid for the win. It starts working immediately and kills everything fast. Then just neutralize with a baking soda mixture and rinse.

 

[Hallowhead]

I've never used muriatic acid but I think I've been convinced otherwise now..