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Acid bath for dead rock?

Neto

By Neto,
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Neto

Neto

Can you guys post some details on this process? I read that is supposed to be 10:1 (Water : Muriatic Acid) for only 10 minutes.....

 

Does this sound right? I will be soaking around 150 pounds of dead rock to remove any phosphates in them.

Shoelace

Shoelace

What kind of rock is it? For heavy Florida or reef saver rock, that dilution might be ok, but with pukani which is very light and porous, it might be too strong and too long of a duration. I once basically dissolved a whole pukani rock away when I just waited for it to stop foaming. You can always start with a dilute solution and work up. Doing the reverse - not so much.

Neto

Neto

  • Author

Here is what I did.  The pics are decent.  Lots of brown goopy foam.

 

http://wamas.org/forums/topic/51680-getting-in-to-reef-tank/

 

I did 20 gallons of water to 1.5 gallons of muratic acid and just left it in until it stopped foaming.  The rock came out brilliant white after a bleach bath post acid. 

 

It did get a little more brittle, but the extra holes made it nice for fishes.

thanks for your reply, I have a few questions if you dont mind:

 

  • After it stopped foaming, how did you removed the rock? Heavy duty gloves? or did you added water or baking soda to stop the reaction?
  • Also when was it safe to add the rock to the tank?
  • What solvents did you use to rinse the rock after the bath?
Neto

Neto

  • Author

What kind of rock is it? For heavy Florida or reef saver rock, that dilution might be ok, but with pukani which is very light and porous, it might be too strong and too long of a duration. I once basically dissolved a whole pukani rock away when I just waited for it to stop foaming. You can always start with a dilute solution and work up. Doing the reverse - not so much.

I have to check with my brother in law's since this is for his tank. he has 100 pounds of rock but I don't know where they come from, probably from the Caribbean.

AlanM Oracle Reefer

AlanM

thanks for your reply, I have a few questions if you dont mind:

 

 

  • After it stopped foaming, how did you removed the rock? Heavy duty gloves? or did you added water or baking soda to stop the reaction?
  • Also when was it safe to add the rock to the tank?
  • What solvents did you use to rinse the rock after the bath?

Once it stopped foaming I didnt do anything special. It is mostly neutralized at that point or else it would still be foaming. I just tipped it over and dumped the can under my deck. Then filled with fresh water to rinse it.

 

I didnt use any solvents after the bath, but i did put it in a tub of bleach for a while too just to whiten it and take off the rest of the organics.

 

I then rinsed and soaked a few times and let it dry completely so cant advise about how quick it can be added. The HCl isnt poisonous to the tank anyway even if any remained, and the bleach evaporates too, so nothing to really worry about with the chemicals if you use those.

elbowdeep88

elbowdeep88

Wait so theoretically speaking one could buy a bunch of marco rock and let it sit for a while in muriatic acid bath and it would come out porous like pacific rock? Has anyone done anything like this? Would it really make pores or just eat away the surface? how long would it take and concentration?

 

I love the structure of Marco rock and find it easy to aquascape with due to the huge holes but have never really considered it because of its density.

Origami Neptune Reefer

Origami

The bleach treatment that Boomer's referring to helps to break down organics that may be filling the pores of old rock - the so-called "unbound" P.

 

Acid treatment of rocks basically dissolves away the rock. I doubt that it will be selective enough to make it more porous. Instead, I would think that it makes the surface less porous.

lnevo

lnevo

(edited)

Yeah that was essentially his conclusion and argument against. You basically can end up sealing a lot of pores.

Edited by lnevo
wangspeed

wangspeed

I used a 10:1 muriatic acid bath on both pukani and reef saver dry rock. The pukani became extremely fragile, but the BRS reef saver came out great.

 

When the foaming gets slow, I hose the hose off from a few feet away, dump it out, and set the rocks out in the sun.

 

--

Warren

jacobB89

jacobB89

I was looking at doing an acid bath but was told to cook the rock that I got from the guy i got the tank from. No clue how old rock was stunk a bit but seems to be doing ok just not sure on the pieces with sponge on them. Will be following to see how it turns out just incase I have to as well.

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