How do I properly clean live rock

[mikellini]

I had great success just using RODI and the sun. If you have the time, this is the best way to avoid chemicals and still leach phosphates/metals from the rock, and has the advantage of not losing any mass (like you would with an acid bath).

To start, I placed the rock in a large rubbermaid of RODI for about 3 days. Lots of circulation. After 3 days it was pretty ripe, rinsed/scrubbed the rock in buckets of RODI and left in the sun to dry. Repeated this about 3 times and the water was clear by the third time, so I just started doing water changes every three days. No smell and no measurable phosphates two weeks later, nice clean rock!