Live Rock - Reincarnated (Acid Bath)

[jbdreefs]

BASSCYN;730127 wrote: Looks like a quick fix to traditional rock curing/cooking to me.
I would have <u>never</u> considered using muratic acid in an application like this. Just doesnt sound like a good idea. But, seems once its neuturalized it rinses clean.

I may have missed it in an earlier post, but I dont know why you would introduce the jump starting bacteria. Is this a completly new build?

I have a lot of old dead, funky rock I want to do this to just to add rock to my sump and refugium. I guess I could do it on a larger scale. I would be doing this in a 32gallon brute.

I agree with you that the sound of soaking rock (or something that goes in a reef aquarium) is terrifying. I definitely had to convince myself that this was okay. After thinking through all the chemistry, i finally decided that there was no reason to be worried about the "acid" part of the equation.

The reason I added the bacteria is because of 1) I didn't think it would hurt anything, and 2) after about a day of curing, I started detecting ammonia.

The ammonia spike just hung around for the remainder of the week. On the 7th day or so, I believe that I finally started to detect some nitrites. The obvious cycle that was occuring served as a confirmation that the acid bath was not as effective as I would have liked in regards to the stuff found within the cavities of the rock. I think there's no question that this stuff was dead, but it was impossible to completely rinse the rock of this stuff. These circumstances are what made me want to cure the rock in the first place. Supposedly, I was supposed to be able to just add the rock to my tank. Thank goodness, I didn't!

So, I did a water change after one week in my curing tank (brute trash can) and added the bacteria to help consume whatever was left in the rock. So far, it appears to be working. An added benefit should be that my rock will have established beneficial bacteria colonies when it is introduced to my tank.

This is not a completely new build, but I just started my tank in early November/late October. The 50 pounds of rock that I'm working with will be my last addition of live rock to my aquarium (which is a fairly significant addition).

The goal with this process was to quickly turn around "bad" live rock without having to go through the full curing/cooking process. If all goes well, the process (from start to finish) will have taken me two weeks total. Not bad, if I may say so.

 

[maelstrom79]

If I may ask, why use this acid process versus bleaching then soaking the rock and/or using a dechlorinator? Just curious and learning here.

 

[jbdreefs]

I believe the concern with the bleaching method is that the rock may still leach undesirables such as phosphates that had previously been absorbed into the rock. When acid is used, it actually dissolves the outer most layer of the rock. I'm guessing the theory here is that if you remove the outer layer of rock you are, therefore, also reducing the chance that your rock will release phosphates, etc., that the rock may have absorbed.

Other than that, both methods kill everything!

 

[funk]

First, sorry for bumping a very old thread.

Given the length of time that's elapsed between the cooking project and now, have you experienced any negative effects (mega high phosphates etc) since introducing the rock back into the tank!

 

[jbdreefs]

Nope. I've actually done this procedure multiple times now.

I haven't reread this thread, so I will say that I think it is a good idea to "cure"/"cycle" the Rock before placing into an established system. If I remember correctly, I kept these rocks in a brute trash can with a skimmer and circulation for a little while.