Can I use bleach/muriatic acid on artificial rock?

[lizzyann]

I received a bunch of live rock with a local tank purchase today. The seller said it was artificial rock, but I'm not sure which brand. When I got home I realized the rock had a lot more bubble algae and probably other nuisance organisms than I first noticed. There might even be some nice encrusting coral or zoas or something left over on there, but unfortunately I've got a pretty specific scaping plan and don't really want surprise corals popping up on me and taking over. I'm upgrading my established system and DEFINITELY don't want to start off my beautiful new tank with pest issues. I originally planned to get dry rock from Reef Cleaners but this stuff came with the tank, soooo...

 

I read about the "reincarnation" cleaning method by treating with bleach and muriatic acid and it seems like the quickest way for me to get super clean, dead rock but since I'm dealing with some fairly dangerous chemicals here I wanted to make sure it was safe to do this with artificial rock. Does anyone have any experience with this? Also would hope it doesn't end up completely eating away this specific rock into nothing?

 

Have any other ideas for me? Or should I just suck it up and fork over the dough for some nice dry rock?

[Naekuh]

Ive used muriatic acid a lot of times on fresh water tanks. 

Remember its basically hydrochloric acid, so after you have done your soak / dip, its probably in your best interest to let it bake out in the sun after you rinsed it so the Cl evaps out and the rock is completely dried before you toss it the tank.

 

Even then after allowing it to completely dry i would soak it in water and dump a lot of PRIME into it to make sure all the Cl was neutralized. 

 

Ive heard of people tho dissolving live rock in acid. I would not leave the rock in too long.

You could i guess experiment to see how long is too long.  

 

Make sure you wear thick gloves, when dealing with muriatic acid, and have a box of baking soda on the side incase of an OOPS....

[Rabb.D]

bleach is the way to go rinse the rock in a bucket of about 500ml gram of bleach of muiratic acid whatsoever then fill the bucket halfway up then rinse with biochloratic acid which is basically a mixture of iodin and lactic acid then remove the mixture after 30 minutes of prolong bathing. that should remover the rock of any traces of harmful chemicals

 

sincerely frokly, rab

[Subsea]

Personally, I would use a 10% solutuion off hydrogen peroxide at 3.5% concentrate.  To clean coral frags & live rock, I soak for 10 minutes.   Soak for 2 days, it will bleach rock white like beach.   Bleach leaves toxins on surfaces and in the interior pores of rock.  I might bleach a glass container, but I would never use anything with interior porosity that had seen bleach.  

 

Pest are not your only problem with used rock.  Calcium phosphate is a normal salt deposit in a heavily  dosed reef tank with limewater for alkalinity management required by SPS.

[mcarroll]

On 3/2/2019 at 10:50 PM, lizzyann said:

 I'm upgrading my established system and DEFINITELY don't want to start off my beautiful new tank with pest issues. I originally planned to get dry rock from Reef Cleaners but this stuff came with the tank, soooo...

Used rock and dead rock both are not the best way to start off then.

 

Used is like you have experienced: usually some pest algae at minimum.  Who knows what else!

 

Starting with dead rock has it's own set of problems and is no kind of guarantee against pest organisms like algae.  The worst pest algae outbreaks I've ever seen seem to all happen in dead rock tanks.  (Other factors at work too.)

 

If you want to take course of action that involves spending some money and a little bit of effort – but with the payoff of a healthy reef – then you wanna pick up at least a half-pound per gallon of display space of REAL ACTUAL live rock.  

 

At minimum, use fully aquacultured artificial rock....even if that is still a trade down from live rock, it's going to be much better than starting with dead rock IMO.

 

Spending money and taking risks with bleach (generates toxins!) and acids (you lose rock!), et al, just doesn't seem like a sound course of action – neither in terms of safety for you, stability for your reef, or even for your pocketbook's well-being.  

 

After all, to make an example, a 10 gallon size (nominal) "The Package" from Tampa Bay Saltwater is only $155.  

 

Not sure why they call it "10 gallon" size since it comes with 20 pounds of live rock and 10 pounds of live sand....plus a more or less complete cleanup crew.  I'd potentially use a combo like that to start anything up to 20 or 30 gallons or even more.  You can also just order (e.g) 20 pounds of live rock, without all the extras, for only $100.  (Shipping would be about +$90 on anything under 100 pounds.)

 

I don't know what size tank you're starting, so those options may not fit your use-case, but they are options that would be worth their cost AND worth any added effort needed after the purchase too.

 

So IMO, either stick with the old-school method of combining patience, observation time and elbow grease to make your new (used) rock acceptable, or sell it and use the proceeds toward buying yourself some new actually live from the ocean live rock.  

 

20 pounds of Tampa Bay rock = $100 + $90 shipping = $190 - $(sale of used rock) = $$$BARGAIN$$$

[blasterman]

My rule is it's either good live rock that you trust (see Mcarrolls response), or rock that needs to be rendered sterile and get's reverted to a state of inert dry rock with nothing alive on it. There is nothing in between except aiptasia and other bad things.

 

To 'convert' live rock to dry rock let it dry completely out, then put it in a bucket of freshwater and vinegar for a few days. Pull it....rinse off...done. Nothing will be left alive you need to worry about, and you aren't screwing with chlorine (bleach) which is toxic in minute amounts to marine organisms. Muriatic acid is hydrochloric acid. Vinegar does the same thing but is less damaging to carbonate based rock, far less toxic to your lungs, and totally unnecessary. 

 

[Superdave]

Acid seems a bit extreme..

 

I used bleach for years on a regular basis in my freshwater days.  I would mix a cup or so of bleach in with full 5 gallon bucket.  After it soaked for a hour or so, I would rinse, then let soak in 5 gallon again with just plain water.  Let air dry and then I was always good to go.  

 

Vinegar is a safer, less aggressive route for sure.  In theory leaving stuff to dry in the sun for several days should kill everything no matter what, but I kind of water if some remnant might "spawn" something.  Scrubbing, bleaching, etc. should take care it.  

[Lingwendil]

On 3/5/2019 at 5:28 AM, Subsea said:

Personally, I would use a 10% solutuion off hydrogen peroxide at 3.5% concentrate.  To clean coral frags & live rock, I soak for 10 minutes.   Soak for 2 days, it will bleach rock white like beach.   Bleach leaves toxins on surfaces and in the interior pores of rock.  I might bleach a glass container, but I would never use anything with interior porosity that had seen bleach.  

 

Pest are not your only problem with used rock.  Calcium phosphate is a normal salt deposit in a heavily  dosed reef tank with limewater for alkalinity management required by SPS.

Real bleach will not leave anything behind in the pores, as it's just sodium hypochlorate. The problem is that one needs to buy regular bleach without additives. Rinse and soak in freshwater with dechlorinator, then allow to air dry for it to evaporate off.

 

 

I honestly wouldn't bother with the muriatic acid, it's a bit aggressive and will reduce the weight of the rock a bit depending on how strong and long you use it. It's useful to an extent in removing phosphate-laden surface rock but I'm not so sure it's needed in most instances.

[ef4life]

I always use muriatic acid on rocks before they go into one of my tanks.  It’s really not dangerous unless your stupid. Don’t do it inside, you need good ventilation, gloves and eye protection don’t hurt, add the acid to the water, I put the rocks in a bucket, fill it up till almost to the top of the rocks, pour in 1/4-1/2 gallon of muriatic acid, It foams a lot when it’s active, once it stops foaming it’s done, I dump the bucket out in the yard on some gravel and Rinse the rocks off really good and then I soak them for a few days in rodi water, let them dry completely, then soak again in rodi for another few days. Then start to cycle them in salt water.