How long should I cycle rock that has been outside (under cover) so there is not any dirt etc?
Rock Cycling
- Thread starter dough
- Start date
Did you wash it first? I would have done an acid bath then rodi rinse before putting it in the tank.
As far as how long, test the water. If you use a bacterial jump starter people say that it can take a few days. I always just wait it out and don’t even test until about a month after setting up a tank.
As far as how long, test the water. If you use a bacterial jump starter people say that it can take a few days. I always just wait it out and don’t even test until about a month after setting up a tank.
Yep, washed it off, and stuck it in a bucket of water from a water change. What acid would have used?
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acid will reduce the total weight as it eats away the rock. It’s a bit more “dangerous”. Using a bleach solution gets almost the same result if you’re unfamiliar with the acid bath procedure. As for time I would do
2 week bleach soak, dry it out, soak it in fresh water with prime for a week, than start the cycling.
2 week bleach soak, dry it out, soak it in fresh water with prime for a week, than start the cycling.
The acid route is a lot quicker and only dangerous if you don’t use common sense. I forget the ratio of a it to water but you soak it for an hour or so then I used a ton of baking soda to neutralize the acid. Using rubber gloves I transferred them to another container with rodi and let them soak the changed that water one or two more times.
Overall it was done in a weekend.
Overall it was done in a weekend.
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Common sense is severely lacking nowadays lol. We label toxic items with “ do not consume”. But I will agree acid route is quicker. BRS has a video on all the methods to cook and cure rock if you’re still on the fence on any particular method.
I usually rinse with water and start "cooking" it in a brute can. I'll use old tank water to get things started and just let it circulate for a good long time. In my case, usually 6 weeks or so. I am not thorough when it comes to cleaning and usually there's a decent amount of dead biological material to break down. A few other the other soaking options mentioned here work well but I just go really slow and let nature do it's thing.
