question about Acid wash on Pukani rock.

tomek77pl

tomek77pl

Member
Hi guys,


I recently purchased about 50 lbs of pukani dry rock form member. I bought a brute can and have the rock sitting it 80° tap-water and its starting to smell. I looked around rc and found people doing mutric acid baths and i'm thinking of doing it to solve the P04 that I might get later on. I plan on doing the acid bath then cycling the rock in saltwater with some live rock until the levels are close to 0. Has anyone done this process ? if yes what were your results after you put the rock back in he tank? Also what is the ration of acid to water I read 1:10 so If my tank hold about 20 gals of ro water then I would need 2 gallons of acid?( just want o make sure so I don't mess up :)). Give me your input guys because I want to do the bath Friday morning and start the cycle for my new build :)
 
I would follow these steps:
1. Soak the rocks in Muratic acid (Cook the rocks)
2. Rinse with fresh water
3. Soak the rocks in Lanthanum chloride solution
4. Soak the rocks in buffered solution to neutralize it (Alkaline solution)
5. Rinse with RO water

Ready to use....100% guaranteed not to have any pests or phosphates leaching issues.
 
How long would this process take?

The alkaline solution is done with the same water with LC ? and what is used for the alkaline solution?

thinkfuture said:
I would follow these steps:
1. Soak the rocks in Muratic acid (Cook the rocks)
2. Rinse with fresh water
3. Soak the rocks in Lanthanum chloride solution
4. Soak the rocks in buffered solution to neutralize it (Alkaline solution)
5. Rinse with RO water

Ready to use....100% guaranteed not to have any pests or phosphates leaching issues.
Click to expand...
 
thinkfuture said:
I would follow these steps:
1. Soak the rocks in Muratic acid (Cook the rocks)
2. Rinse with fresh water
3. Soak the rocks in Lanthanum chloride solution
4. Soak the rocks in buffered solution to neutralize it (Alkaline solution)
5. Rinse with RO water

Ready to use....100% guaranteed not to have any pests or phosphates leaching issues.
Click to expand...

The muriatic acid accomplishes the same as the lanthium chloride, so there is really no need to use both, just one or the other. What "cooks" the rocks is bleach, which gets rid of all the decaying organics in the rock. Either the Muriatic acid or lanthium chloride will get rid of phosphates, but not dead organics on the rock. Also I would suggest not rinsing the rock afterwords with tap water, I would use RODI water. The tap water will possibly introduce phosphates back onto the rocks.

I used lanthium chloride, not muriatic acid, but the acid is much faster.
 
tomek77pl said:
How long would this process take?

The alkaline solution is done with the same water with LC ? and what is used for the alkaline solution?
Click to expand...

If you want to use bleach first to get rid of decaying organics and then use the muriatic acid, your talking about 2 days or so soaking in the bleach, then on day 3 changing the water maybe for 2 days in a row, you can use tap for this part, then adding some prime to get rid of any lingering ammonia. The next step would be the muriatic acid. Bleach and muriatic acid are dangerous together so you need to make sure all the bleach is gone before treating with the acid. The acid part can be done in a day. The stuff will foam like crazy and you'll want to do this outside. I was a bit nervous about using the acid, and used lanthium chloride, but it takes about a week. I can't help you with the ratio of muriatic acid to water, but I used about 5 parts water to 1 part bleach.

Also, Baking soda neutralizes the muriatic acid. Keep adding it until the acid no longer fizzes when you add more. Then check the pH, it should be 7 when neutralized.
 
edsbeaker said:
The muriatic acid accomplishes the same as the lanthium chloride, so there is really no need to use both, just one or the other. What "cooks" the rocks is bleach, which gets rid of all the decaying organics in the rock. Either the Muriatic acid or lanthium chloride will get rid of phosphates, but not dead organics on the rock. Also I would suggest not rinsing the rock afterwords with tap water, I would use RODI water. The tap water will possibly introduce phosphates back onto the rocks.

I used lanthium chloride, not muriatic acid, but the acid is much faster.
Click to expand...

I would suggest using tap water. There is not enough phosphate in tap water to contaminate your rock while curing it. You'll need to soak and rinse then soak a few times and using RODI wouldn't be economical and just overkill.
 
KeishaKornbread said:
I would suggest using tap water. There is not enough phosphate in tap water to contaminate your rock while curing it. You'll need to soak and rinse then soak a few times and using RODI wouldn't be economical and just overkill.
Click to expand...

Yes, what Walt said... I was just suggesting after the acid bath only to use RODI, not throughout the whole process!
 
And do it outside. Because it is going to bubble up. I wish I would have prepped my rock like this initially. It would have saved me a world of headaches.
 
the rock came dry with a bunch of dried up sponges on the inside but with the acid bath wouldn't the organics be removed as well if the rocks walls are dissolved by the acid? I purchased the acid today and will be adding 1.5 gals to 15 gallons of water bu I will do some more research before I add the acid to the water.


edsbeaker said:
If you want to use bleach first to get rid of decaying organics and then use the muriatic acid, your talking about 2 days or so soaking in the bleach, then on day 3 changing the water maybe for 2 days in a row, you can use tap for this part, then adding some prime to get rid of any lingering ammonia. The next step would be the muriatic acid. Bleach and muriatic acid are dangerous together so you need to make sure all the bleach is gone before treating with the acid. The acid part can be done in a day. The stuff will foam like crazy and you'll want to do this outside. I was a bit nervous about using the acid, and used lanthium chloride, but it takes about a week. I can't help you with the ratio of muriatic acid to water, but I used about 5 parts water to 1 part bleach.

Also, Baking soda neutralizes the muriatic acid. Keep adding it until the acid no longer fizzes when you add more. Then check the pH, it should be 7 when neutralized.
Click to expand...
 
Here what I did with all my live rock 2-3 months ago (about 150 lb)

- 1/4 gallon of Muriatic Acid with 20 gallon tab water in 30 gallon container for 3 days (carefully with the Acid).
- 1/2 gallon of vinegar with 20 gallon tab water for 2 days.
- Rinse all the rock with RO water and let them dry for 2-3 day.
- Done and slowly put in the tank.

Running GFO now with phosphate 0.03 - 0.05 by Hanna Checker.

I recommend doing the Acid outside the house (I am not because too cold outside by that time).
 
From what I understand, the acid removes a layer of rock and takes out PO4 and heavy metals like copper that may be on the rock, it also will kill everything that is on the rock, but it's shortcoming is that it won't breakdown that dead organic material. That's where the bleach comes in handy. Now if you don't care if that dead organic material isn't broken down before you cycle the tank, it isn't necessarily a step that you need to take. IMO, I would be more concerned about the phosphates, but if I had the chance, I would also take that extra step of bleaching.
 
Did the acid bath and went light with the acid. Used 1 gal for 20 gallons or ro water, then I pressured washed the rock and put them n a bin of ro water with a pump and a heater. Should I start adding salt ? and start cycling? I don't want to keep doing water changes if these rocks start to smell.
 
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