nasty rock

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Realshow

In the stage this rock is on now do I still need to use saltwater for it or would it be ok to just use freshwater & give constant flushes until it gets to a stage not as foul as it is now.
Cheers!

Muriatic acid is strong enough to do a lot of damage to your eyes and mucous membranes as well as your skin. Goggles and gloves for sure. Muriatic acid seems a reasonable approach provided you use appropriate safety equipment. I would soak in RODI water first so that the acid isn't soaked up as much. I wouldn't dip it for longer than a couple hours as there is no point in getting the acid all the way to the middle of the rock since you are really only wanting to kill the surface nuisances. This method will essentially strip the outer layer of rock off. You will still need to leech the phosphate and nitrate from the rock by "cooking".

Freshwater is fine through the whole leeching process right up to the point you want to re-seed the rock with some live rock.

[Realshow]

Awesome!
thank you all for your advice.

[toytech]

If you dont want to do acid , you can use regular bleach. I bleached 4 buckets full of rock and they all turned out very clean , some had unwanted zoas on them and they vanished with al the algea . I mixed the bleach at 4 to 1 water to bleach , rinse then dry in the sun . Bleach evaporates and leaves only salt behind.