Cleaning and Bleaching Live Rock

[AKay3600]

Howdy,

So I am upgrading from a Reefer 250 to a 100G but am looking to start from scratch with my rocks. A lot of the rocks I have had for around 7 years now and they are covered in lots of good stuff but also a looott of vermetid snails and some turf algae that just never goes away.

I am going to clean up and sell a good chunk of my corals and clean keep the rest. With the rocks that I do have though, I guess my plan was going to be to put them in a 10gallon bucket and mix in some rodi water and bleach and let it sit for a few days. After a couple days I will probably pull them out and scrub them a bit and bleach again for a few more days. After about a week or a little less I would fill the bucket with just RODI and run a power head for a couple days again before letting them dry out in the sun. Does this seem like a good way to start fresh with my older live rock?

Thanks!

 

[edd59]

it wont be live anymore. i used 10-1 muriatic acid - water. works fast, then a bleech water soak, then hose water and sun dry.

 

[LordofCinder]

It will work, its basically the same as I what I did

 

[RICKY81]

it wont be live anymore. i used 10-1 muriatic acid - water. works fast, then a bleech water soak, then hose water and sun dry.

pardon my ignorance, but when you say 10-1 muratic acid, would that be 10 gallons of water to 1 gallon of muriatic acid? And for how long do you leave them in the acid and how much bleed do you add to the water?

 

[mfinn]

Howdy,

So I am upgrading from a Reefer 250 to a 100G but am looking to start from scratch with my rocks. A lot of the rocks I have had for around 7 years now and they are covered in lots of good stuff but also a looott of vermetid snails and some turf algae that just never goes away.

I am going to clean up and sell a good chunk of my corals and clean keep the rest. With the rocks that I do have though, I guess my plan was going to be to put them in a 10gallon bucket and mix in some rodi water and bleach and let it sit for a few days. After a couple days I will probably pull them out and scrub them a bit and bleach again for a few more days. After about a week or a little less I would fill the bucket with just RODI and run a power head for a couple days again before letting them dry out in the sun. Does this seem like a good way to start fresh with my older live rock?

Thanks!

I use bleach to get rid of unwanted organic matter ( algae, invasive polyps, etc.).
I use 2 cups of bleach to 5 gallons of water. Let the rock sit in it for 48 hours. Rinse in tap water and make sure everything is gone that I want gone. If not repeat.
Then I do a soak in a dechlorinator solution like API Tap Water Conditioner, at 4-5 times the recommended strength, for 24 hours.
Then air dry for 48.

 

[edd59]

pardon my ignorance, but when you say 10-1 muratic acid, would that be 10 gallons of water to 1 gallon of muriatic acid? And for how long do you leave them in the acid and how much bleed do you add to the water?

yes 10 water to 1 acid. rock water to cover rock and measure with 5 gallon bucket,

doesnt have to be precise, then acid
when i did it i left it in until it stopped bubbling. maybe 30-60 minutes. you want to watch it cause it will dissolve the rock. i didnt notice any loss.
do it outside and wear eye protection.

 

[trajik]

Planning to use this process on some old rock for a tank rebuild. The rock I have picked out to reuse is the purple rock. If I bleach it or use acid, will the purple come off or will that remain?

 

[mfinn]

Planning to use this process on some old rock for a tank rebuild. The rock I have picked out to reuse is the purple rock. If I bleach it or use acid, will the purple come off or will that remain?

Most likely some of it will come off. I know I've done a few purple painted rocks and some of the purple came off.

 

[trajik]

Most likely some of it will come off. I know I've done a few purple painted rocks and some of the purple came off.

Any better way to do it you think? I’d like to keep as much as possible for display purposes.

 

[mfinn]

Any better way to do it you think? I’d like to keep as much as possible for display purposes.

The main idea for bleaching rock is to remove organic material off the rock, such as algae, aiptasia, invasive rogue corals, and other pests. IMO there is really no other reason to bleach rock. Losing some of the color from man made rock is just part of the process. The amount that comes off depends on strength of the bleach solution and duration of the soak. Unless all of the unwanted material comes off, the bleach soak would be pointless.
IMO an acid soak will remove more of the color and more rock than organic material.
I have some real reef rock ( brand name) that I was saving that had been cleaned with bleach and while it did lose some color, there is alot still there. Made it lighter purple, rather than the dark purple it came with.