acid bath and the after math

[Masonjames]

Originally Posted by Ryancw

lol, WUT?

Why do you need to soak after the acid bath? What's the purpose?

Rinse it well and it is ready for the tank.

[canadianbudz604]

I did the 70% acid 30% water and it did not clean the rock the way I thought it even turned some of them dark dark brown?!? What did I do wrong

[gregzz4]

Originally Posted by canadianbudz604

I did the 70% acid 30% water and it did not clean the rock the way I thought it even turned some of them dark dark brown?!? What did I do wrong

What acid did you use ?
And you say you used 70 acid to 30 water ?
Hydrochloric acid dissolves inorganic stuff, so it strips all the minerals

[Coral Hoarder]

I found 3 and 7 acid to water to be way to strong 2 8 or 1 9 works just as well and doesn't eat all the rock I did 1 and 9 my second attempt and it worked better more rock less organics

Bottles I used said hydrochloric muriatic

[WarDog]

I got my rock from Eli, not sure if OP is using live rock or dry rock... but here's what I did.

Removed as much dry dead matter as I could reach with tweezers.
Bathe in 1 part bleach to 10 parts tap water for 24 hrs with a powerhead.
Bathe in 1 part Muriatic acid (pool section at Cdn Tire) to 10 parts tap water for 4 hours, or until chemical reaction (bubbles) stops.
Sprinkled lots of Arm & Hammer baking soda (to neutralize acid), I let that sit for 1 hour. Stirred a few times.
Hosed down rocks and left them out to dry, few hours.
They all came out sparkling white with just minor spots of brown.
They did sit dry, in a box, inside for about 3 months before I was ready to aquascape.
Began cycle, tested PO4 at 0.03 for a month.
After a month PO4 dropped to 0.
Don't want to jinx myself, but I think there won't be any problem with leeching PO4 in the future. If there is I am ready for it.
I credit my success (so far) with the bleach/acid baths and the use of the dry rock. I'm not sure how much long term PO4 values would be if it were previously live rock.

[canadianbudz604]

Originally Posted by gregzz4

What acid did you use ?
And you say you used 70 acid to 30 water ?
Hydrochloric acid dissolves inorganic stuff, so it strips all the minerals

Muriatic acid from Rona. And sorry 70% water to 30% acid. Not sure what I did but it didn't work well

[Coral Hoarder]

How long did you do it for?

And I had live rock the first time Nd dry rock Tonga branch and shelf the second

[FishyFishy!]

Apparently the stuff from Rona is very diluted. You need to buy the pure stuff from a pool/spa store. Mine worked absolute wonders. That was The best decision I have made in regards to setting up a new system.

[Masonjames]

What condition was the rock in prior to the acid bath?
If there were any orgaincs that were present on the rock the acid will have no real effect on those orgaincs. Even at 100% the acid just isn't going to cut it with organics. This is why bleach is recommended prior to the acid treatment. The bleach is done to prepare the rock for the acid. So what you may be seeing is orgianc material that is still present.
Now if the rock was free of organics, you may just be seeing mineral deposits.

The process is so very simple. And does not need to be made more complicated.
Soak the rock in bleach for 24 hrs. Does not even require diluting. Rinse well when done.
Let rock completely dry.
Treat with acid. Strength of acid will be based on the density of the rock in question. This is up to the user to determine by trail and error. Soak it, bathe it, dump it directly on straight from the bottle. It don't matter. Figure out what works best for the rock in question. Rinse well and it is ready for the tank.
There is no need to neutralize the acid, there is no need for hours of soaking in the acid. Calcium carbonate is an acidic nuetralizer. The rock starts to neutralize the acid as soon as it comes in contact. The reaction happens rather quickly and the acid will be neutralized rather quickly.
Calcium carbonate is used in many industries as a acidic neutralizer. The chemical equation is easily found online.
There is no possiblity of bleach and or acid contaminating the system if the rock is allowed to completely dry after using the bleach, and a good rinse after the acid.
The only real investment in time to do the proccess is soaking the rock in bleach for 24 hrs, and letting the rock completely dry out post bleach. Everything else even the acid treatment should take minutes not hours.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Masonjames

There is no need to neutralize the acid,

I would only disagree with this part. I soaked rock in acid many years ago, and after 12 hours, removed all my clean rock. I then added a large box of baking soda and ended up with something resembling my kid's volcano science project
For the cost of baking soda vs the impact to dumping acid into the sewer system, I'd do this as a required "just in case" step.