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!

[jason604]

Oh man did I mess up? After pouring a gallon of bleach in a garbage bin full of rock I notice that the bleach was lemon scented. Is this bad or can I just flush it with water tomorrow and it be fine after a acid bath? Not too worried about acid bath making my rocks lose mass. It won't lose much.

[SoloSK71]

The acid *should* get any residual organics, which *might* include the scent chemicals. You may have to go multiple cycles of RO/DI water, perhaps even with carbon, before you can be sure.

Charles

[jason604]

Originally Posted by SoloSK71

The acid *should* get any residual organics, which *might* include the scent chemicals. You may have to go multiple cycles of RO/DI water, perhaps even with carbon, before you can be sure.

Charles

Ok thx I will soak it in ro/di water a couple times with a power head and one of those hang on filters with carbon after I do my acid wash tmr.

[mikellini]

Whatever the lemon scent is, it won't be organic. Chlorine bleach disintegrates organics, that's how it works. And if you're doing the acid bath to get rid of phosphates, then you'll actually need to lose a significant amount of mass to be successful. It works by removing a layer of rock that has adsorbed phosphates, if you don't remove enough then you're not removing phosphates. Depending on the porosity of the rock, I've heard of acid baths removing 25% of the dry mass of the rock.

Carbon will probably help with removing whatever the lemon scent chemical is. Also soaking in RODI will pull it into the water for removal

[jason604]

No way 25% lose of rock? Can't be that much

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by jason604

No way 25% lose of rock? Can't be that much

While I'm not sure that's a real number, you do need to remove a layer of every external and internal surface to unbind the PO4. You're gonna lose some mass

[mikellini]

Maybe 10% for your average rock, but one guy on reef central did it with pukani and lost 25%, didn't even look like the same rock

[jason604]

Do u guys think only bleach is good enough or maybe like a 30min acid bath as well to minimize mass loss?

[mikellini]

Honestly I would just do a few successive soaks in RODI. 0 tds water is very aggressive at pulling things out of rock, it's a strong solvent