Dry Pikani bleach than acid bath

[nbreau]

Originally Posted by Bblinks

Acid dipping is necessary due to the left over organics in the rock which will cause a phosphate spike even long after the tank has been cycled. lots of people run into algae problem with there newly set up tank and ultimately give up after months of battling green hair algae (gha) with no success not knowing that it would've been prevented simply by curing your rock prior to placing them in to your tank. There are a few ways of curing your rock and one of them is to acid dip them then run them in a bin with saltwater, heater and pump for a month or two before placing them in your tank or some will skip the acid dipping part and just do the latter but thats all personal preference. There are a hundred ways to skin the cat but if you are getting dry rock especially pukani, you will need to do this.

Thanks for clarifying ! So is the acid bath used to speed up the cycling process and for a new tank setup can I simply drop the rock in the empty tank with some live rock for seeding a wait a month or two ? Sounds like both steps are required ?

[mohammadali]

What's the name of the acid you use ?

[FishyFishy!]

Originally Posted by mohammadali

What's the name of the acid you use ?

Muriatic acid. Available in concentration from most pool/spa stores.

[mohammadali]

Originally Posted by FishyFishy!

Muriatic acid. Available in concentration from most pool/spa stores.

in 15G water with LR in it how much Acid should i add ?
this Acid sold in 1G

[Coral Hoarder]

15 gal ÷100×30 =4.5 galons

[Masonjames]

Calcite will attract and bind phospahtes just as gfo does. It chemically binds it. If any level of po4 is present it will quickly bind to calcite and can do so until saturation. This goes for any calcium carbonate structure.

Most dry rock/live rock will more then likey come from three sources, either a fellow reefer, inland mining or lagoonal waters. All of which have ample levels of po4.

But it doesn't matter where it came from. If you have dry rock, you have bound po4. It's means of freeing up bound po4 has been removed. The only differnce between live rock and dry rock in terms of what happends with bound po4 is the bacterial proccess that take place that break the bond. Healty live rock is self cleaning if given the appropriate environment to do so. An enviromnet with po4 levels greater then that of which the bacteria can utilize, the calcite structure slowly fills up to the point of saruration. This is why live rock can come with just as much bound po4 as dry. And this is why dry WILL have bound po4.

It's there wether a person wants to believe it or not. Wether it is of concern to an individual or not, well that is up to the user. But for those who want to deal with what WILL be bound po4 prior to indroduction into a system then there are many great ways to achieve this.

For live rock and dry rock. Cooking is best.

Dry rock. Bleach, acid is the quickest and simplest. But keep in mind that the acid will remove a layer or rock which is bound with po4. A good thing. But by doing so you also now expose new calcite free of po4. As soon as this calcite comes back into contact with po4.... Well... Why it's the second best option.

I myself use the latter.

Many aslo have great success and little to no issue purging in tank. Don't want denny to feel left out. Lol.

But if your not going to follow any of that up with proper husbandry practices for keeping your calcium carbonate structures healthy. Then don't bother. Your destined for algae problems despite the rock then.

[mohammadali]

I dont have any Algae problem but my phosphate is 2.0 i tested with API test kit but my corals lost color

[Bblinks]

Originally Posted by nbreau

Thanks for clarifying ! So is the acid bath used to speed up the cycling process and for a new tank setup can I simply drop the rock in the empty tank with some live rock for seeding a wait a month or two ? Sounds like both steps are required ?

Hello nbreau,

Acid bath has nothing to do with the cycle, your rock will cycle either way but the purpose of acid dipping is to get rid of all the dead organic matters left behind in the rock which can alleviate a lot of headaches for the future of your tank.

If your agenda is to speed up the cycle, there are ample amount of products you can use like microbak 7, zeobac, or Dr.Tims one and only.

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by Bblinks

Hello nbreau,

Acid bath has nothing to do with the cycle, your rock will cycle either way but the purpose of acid dipping is to get rid of all the dead organic matters left behind in the rock which can alleviate a lot of headaches for the future of your tank.

ah now this is wording it more like it , i think people are getting confused with the nitrogen cycle and curing process....these are not the same things

[Bblinks]

Had to clarify it, I was getting confused myself.