Bleach Curing

[Dave21]

Hey everyone. I got a good deal on some used dead rock and after looking into it I decided to bleach cure it. This is my first time cleaning dead rock so I just want to see if it's safe to use. 

 

I soaked it in diluted bleach water for a little over a week and it is much cleaner but all the skeletons from LPS and sps on the rock are still on the rocks an are nearly pure white. I don't see why this would hurt but just want to get an opinion from someone who has used this method before. 

 

I sprayed off the rocks and am going to soak them in clean water with water treatment for a day or so and leave them out to completely dry for a week or so before building the aquascape. 

 

 

[Tired]

Reef rock is made of dead coral skeletons. They're meant to be there.

 

Pics? Sounds like it might look cool. 

[mcarroll]

2 hours ago, Dave21 said:

Hey everyone. I got a good deal on some used dead rock and after looking into it I decided to bleach cure it. This is my first time cleaning dead rock so I just want to see if it's safe to use. 

 

I soaked it in diluted bleach water for a little over a week and it is much cleaner but all the skeletons from LPS and sps on the rock are still on the rocks an are nearly pure white. I don't see why this would hurt but just want to get an opinion from someone who has used this method before. 

 

I sprayed off the rocks and am going to soak them in clean water with water treatment for a day or so and leave them out to completely dry for a week or so before building the aquascape. 

 

 

If the rock no longer smells like bleach, then it's OK to use.  Very likely even if it smells like bleach it would be OK.....once re-dissolved in a few dozen gallons of saltwater, it would become insignificant.

 

FYI...

 

If you go back and read saltwater tank guidance from the 1980's and before, you'd get to know all about bleaching rock.   This was THE WAY to decorate a tank before the value of live rock was discovered (and later forgotten).

 

Bleaching is really not recommended anymore.   And it was never a good idea for lots of reasons....personal safety not being the least of them.  (Bleach + nitrogenous compounds = toxic gas!)  We could say it's an incorrect usage of rock.

 

Similarly, we could also say that bleaching rock is an incorrect use of bleach – which would require specific precautions to be done safely.   However it's also entirely unnecessary....just to take it back to the start.  To wit...

 

If the rock looked good enough to buy, then the best thing is just to put the rock in water and get it started.  There is literally nothing to be afraid of.  Unlease a little army of hermit crabs on it if there's really a lot of stuff on the rock.  Plus, "clean rock" is 100% an oxymoron in our context....absolutely not in any way a goal to be pursued.

 

On the other hand, if the rock looked scary at the time of purchase, then you would (hopefully!) decide not to buy it in the first place.  Even NEW dead rock is already about as cheap as dirt, so not worth much bother to acquire old rock – unless it's ALIVE!

 

But like everything bad on the internet, old/stale/bad/junk advice like bleaching your rock never dies.  It just keeps swirling the bottom until it gets churned up.

 

Eventually, some popular YouTube account that everyone seems to love makes a whole video series about the old/stale advice they just learned about on the forums.  Then the old/stale advice "feels new (and newer is always better!)" to another generations of newbs.  As you might guess, this happen on WAY MORE than just live rock advice. 🙄  

 

The internet can be a really, really terrible place to learn....which might seem contrary since there's so much good info out there.  (Which there is!)  But it is true – the good info out there is not always very easy to find – often hidden in books – and it's not often well promoted.

 

Lots of great books out there for our hobby going unread EVERY SINGLE DAY.  😉 

 

[seabass]

I totally agree with mcarrol about the advantages of live rock; a sterile tank is not our end goal.  But I also understand your desire to remove the already dead organics from the rock; there was simply no life to save.

 

So going forward, seeding new life becomes important.  Sometimes this includes adding cured live rock, macroalgae, sand from a healthy tank (or collected from the ocean), purchasing inverts (like pods, worms, etc). The more life and biodiversity you can achieve, the better.