nasty rock

[ckmullin]

Originally Posted by Realshow

So using the acid will eat off all the rotting matter.
Then follow that up with lots of rinsing.
Does the acid have a residual effect on the rock?
How long should the rock soak for after the acid bath & before entering into the tank?
Do I just start a regular cure on the rock afterwards?
Where is a good place to pick up some of the acid?

1. after treatment throw it in a bucket of tap water and add some baking soda and let sit for an hour or so (get any small pockets of lowered PH water out of the rock)

2. No residual effect but that it will/can change the structure/look of the rock since your throwing a lump of calcium carbonate into acid.

3. I've soaked for different time periods from an hour to overnight. 2-4 hours is good...but depends on what your trying to get off. I've let it go for 10-12 hours for a tough piece and also to experiment. Let the rock soak in tap water and the baking soda for a again a good couple hours...depends on how big the rock might be.

4. Don't need to cure the rock afterwards because it's (should be) 100% dead. What you might want to do is seed the rock to get life growing on it once again.

[Realshow]

Ok thank you for the information .
where can I find this stuff?

[ckmullin]

Originally Posted by ckmullin

acid.

I've used it and it's the magic bullet.

http://www.rona.ca/en/pool---muriatic-acid

Had put up a link yesterday of what I've used. ~ $14

[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.