Bombertech Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Ran 200lbs through acid bath yesterday, to put the info all in one place, here's a quick write-up for those that haven't done it but need/want to. Why? Excessive phosphate, organics, pests, and suspected light copper use are a few reasons. Most LR sold locally comes out of tanks that have been neglected for a while before being torn down, some just is out of water for too long and has die-off. You can roll the dice and deal with phos/pest issues for years, or take 4-5 hours to do the procedure written below. Bear with me as I'm typing this on my phone. 1. Pressure Wash - Get as much organic crud off the rock as possible. If you need to, you can always make a trip to the carwash if you can't source a pressure washer for a couple days. 2. Bleach Bath - put the rock in a tub, use a 5 gallon bucket to measure water needed to submerge the rock. You want a 1 to 5 bleach/water mix. So 30 gallons of water gets 6 gallon jugs of bleach. Toss in a pump or powerhead for circulation and leave for 24 hours. 3. Rinse - The organics will be oxidized and stringy filth will be everywhere. Pull the rock and rinse well!! Two ways: either soak in water and rinse or pressure wash again (recommended). 4. Prep for Acid - with muratic acid, 10-1 water/acid works well. Mined rock (Marco Rock) will disolve faster than figi, don't go above 10-1 if you are cleaning this type. If you have figi type you can go to 10-1.5 for really nasty rock. Buy gallon jugs of muratic acid (pool supply or bigbox store), a pair of gloves so you can reach the bottom of your tub, a big box of baking soda, goggles if you don't have any. 5. Acid Bath - put the rocks in, submerg in water. I use a powerhead on this part to prevent mass offgassing of acid hitting a single spot. Now, I add the acid to the rock and water. I do this to prevent splashing straight acid (which happens when you add water/rock to acid). I slowly pour in one jug at a time until the reaction gets rolling spaced about a minute apart. Splashing is prevented and the reaction slowly increases versus having crap bubble everywhere. Running at 10-1, you can let the reaction run it's course (20-30 mins). When the bubbling slows, you can grab out a piece of rock with the gloves and see how it's going. I let the bubbling completely stop (PH neutral) and add a couple cups of baking soda. Let it circulate for a few minutes and its done! 6. Rinse and Store - Pull the rock and rinse (or pressure wash). You can now set it out to dry for long term storage, put it in a tub for cycling bacteria, or place them in an established tank a few rocks at a time spread out over a few weeks. If you are going to cycle/or toss in a tank, let it soak overnight in Prime or some other de-chlorinator just to play it safe. If its getting dry stored, the chlorine will evaporate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishmanmike01 Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 I was thinking. Why can't this be done with old sand? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
earthbound Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 I am sure you can do it with sand but you would probably dissolve half the sand along with the organics. I am just speculating never actually tried it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheClark Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 Awesome Matt, thanks for writing it up. Phosphate rocks suck! Or at least they leach.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishmanmike01 Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 I did probably 400lb a few weeks ago. Even got a cool little video of it. Just can't seem to figure out how to upload it to photobucket. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitrillion Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Same fishman mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bombertech Posted January 13, 2015 Author Share Posted January 13, 2015 Toss up any pointers/pics/vids! The more info the better! All the haters on R2R make this rock cleaning technique sound like rocket surgery mixed with breaking bad... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badxgillen Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 That's some funny $#!T right there. And yes thank you for the write up and additional tips, pouring the acid to the water is a simple one that can save you some headache, I know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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