Myka's 69 SPS Tank 2015

[Myka]

Thanks guys! I'm not quite done the inside, but I wanted to get some paint on it so it can dry well before the tank gets here. I won't be working in it again until Thursday.

[Myka]

Just to keep this thread going while I wait for the tank, here are a couple pics of where the old frag tank is sitting. I plan to position the new tank a little further to the right so that it is fully in the livingroom and is more in line with the recliner for excellent viewing. The new tank will have 3" taller viewing panes, and the stand is also 3 1/2" taller, so the entire system will stand 6 1/2" taller. It will fit the wall better.

I put some rock into the frag tank (it was all acrylic racks) to help mature the rock.

[Myka]

So I decided to acid wash the old formerly live, then dried dead rock. The latest reading was still over 100 ppm nitrate and 0.5 ppm phosphate after two 100% water changes (no change noted). I made some strong acid! I managed not to burn myself though, so that's a bonus.

I donned goggles, beautiful yellow rubber gloves, and shorts, tank, and sandals (ha!). I bought two 900 mL bottles of muriatic acid and poured them into 1 1/2 gallons of tap water. I dipped the rocks one at a time, and overdid the first one in about 12 minutes - that's some powerful mix! The rest of the rocks got about a 5-8 minutes dip, tap water rinse, tap water plus baking soda rinse (1 1/2 containers baking soda and about 3 gallons of water), then back into the rock tub filled with RO. A couple hours later I test the RO at pH 7.8 so I guess the rinse was sufficient. I will test nitrate and phosphate in a few days and see if there was any progress.



Here's the first rock getting half dissolved (lol):

[Doug]

Braver than I

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Doug

Braver than I

It's not that bad Doug. I've acid washed rocks before in much lower dilution for a much longer time (hours rather than minutes), but I found that some rocks require more time, and others require less. So I decided to dip them one at a time. I didn't want to spend all day doing it, so I made the acid strong. I didn't realize it would be that strong! It took me less than an hour to do it all include setup and cleanup, and cost me $12 for the acid and 40 gallons of RO. Pretty straight forward as long as you're careful about splashing.