How do I properly clean live rock

[Reef Pilot]

What am I missing here?? If you buy live rock, why would you then kill it with acid or bleach? Save your bucks and buy dead rock (marco rock or equivalent) and do the acid with that if you must.

When I first got into this hobby 4 years ago, I had to deal with old tank syndrome live rock (inherited a 10 year running tank) with both high nitrates and high phosphates. It took a while but eventually got it down to zero nitrates and phosphates. Knowing what I know now, that time would be drastically reduced if I had to do it again.

Also added marco rock and only rinsed and soaked it for a few weeks (with many water changes) before adding to my display tanks. I did get a phosphate spike again, but got that under control pretty quick. I have used Foz Down also, and it really works well to get a serious phosphate problem under control. But as others have said, you need to be careful with your doses. Then I just maintained with GFO.

The key also is having the right P04 test kit. Your color test kits are not accurate enough and can lull you into thinking you have low or no phosphates. You need the Hanna digital checker for that.