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Old 11-25-2014, 06:33 PM
Masonjames Masonjames is offline
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just make sure it's unscented bleach and or free from additives/perfumes etc.

My advice would be just bleach it then acid bath it and be done with it.

Bleach would be useful for any organics and would help prepare for purging. You don't need to soak after bleach. Just rinse really well and let it dry completely. Once it's dry, there is no more bleach. Based solely on the properties of bleach. Soaking would just be a waist of space, water and time IMO.

I would highly recommend doing a muratic acid bath if you are (and should be) concerned about bound up nutrients within the rock. Yes acid will strip away the surface of the rock, but I can guarantee that whatever you strip away on rock (which would not be that much anyways) would be cheaper and a heck of allot easier then dealing with any potential bound phosphates after the fact.
I just looked at a tank the other day who used the same source rock, and was covered in a thick layer of hair algae. There will be allot more invested into purging that rock of bound phosohates then if the rock had been properly prepared prior. And we read story's like this all the time.

I don't know where the rock in question is sourced from but most dry rock that is availabe is sourced inland. The very nature of this means that in most cases it would be heavily loaded with bound phosphates.

Yes you can purge by other methods, but IMO require much greater investment of resources. In some cases substantial.

Bleach, let dry, acid bath, throughly rinse and throw in tank and start seeding. Couldnt be simpler. But could be awhole lot worse.
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