Dry rock cleaning with Sulphuric acid vs Muriatic acid

Joe Batt · Jan 30, 2018

Hi Randy,
This is a repost from another forum after a suggestion it would be better here, can you help please?

I am cleaning up some old dry rocks and I was going to use muriatic acid. The slight problem I have is that I don't live in the US and I can't find any, the closest I have got was hydrochloric acid in a 25g drum.....a little much I feel ......

I have however found Ph Redux that says it is sulphuric acid. Is there any reason I cant use that instead? If its OK are there any extra precautions you have to take other than the standard gloves, goggles, mask and open area?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jan 30, 2018

Sulphuric acid is also fine. Does it give a concentration?

mfinn · Jan 30, 2018

If you are just cleaning the rock to remove unwanted organic matter or just to make it white, use bleach.
Works better than acid IMO.

Joe Batt · Jan 30, 2018

Nope...no concentration, just Ph Redux (sulphuric acid, corrosion inhibitors). I was going to add until I started to see it fizzing.

The intent is to do both the acid bath and also the bleach, might as well go the whole hog

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jan 30, 2018

Joe Batt said:
Nope...no concentration, just Ph Redux (sulphuric acid, corrosion inhibitors). I was going to add until I started to see it fizzing.

The intent is to do both the acid bath and also the bleach, might as well go the whole hog

Do you have a link to it?

When I google it, I get a women's health product.

Joe Batt · Jan 30, 2018

Waterpool Industries apparently
I appreciate your help Randy

Water

Joe Batt · Jan 30, 2018

PatW · Jan 30, 2018

I use bleach to clean out dried organic gunk on the rock. And bleach does a good job of this.

I recently added muriatic acid or hydrochloric acid if you are a chemist. It actually removes the outer layer of rock. The idea is that any phosphates in the rock will be removed by the acid.

Joe Batt · Jan 30, 2018

That's exactly what I was looking to do. Then after the acid and the bleach baths I will soak in RODI to allow any residual Po4 to leach out from the rock till it registers close to zero.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jan 30, 2018

I worry about the corrosion inhibitors listed on that Redux product.

Joe Batt · Jan 30, 2018

In which case I will not bother with it and keep searching. I don't want to ruin my rocks.
If I resorted to just 100% vinegar how long a bath would you suggest, if indeed it is strong enough to do the job?

Skynyrd Fish · Jan 30, 2018

You could do bleach, then Vinegar. Or just Cook in darkness for about six weeks. Change the water 100% for the last three weeks. Then test for PO4. Once you are registering 0 PO4 your good to go. I acid bathed rock and never hit the 0 PO4. It came close, .04 with the hanna.

Panky · Feb 20, 2018

Would this work? I have about 500lbs of rock that came from an aquarium that crashed during Hurricane Irma. Would this be safe to use on the rock? I use this for my pool, and the pool maint guy dropped off a gallon to me. If so, how long do I need to let it soak?

Jeepguy242 · Feb 20, 2018

I used 50/50 bleach and water for a week and then 50/50 vinegar and water for a week to clean a lot of dry rock that came from someone else’s tank hat was pretty grungy

Then I let them dry for a week

Then I soaked them in ro/di for a week in total darkness and then put some of them in my tank after removing some of my hair algae covered rock

Joe Batt · Feb 21, 2018

Panky said:
Would this work? I have about 500lbs of rock that came from an aquarium that crashed during Hurricane Irma. Would this be safe to use on the rock? I use this for my pool, and the pool maint guy dropped off a gallon to me. If so, how long do I need to let it soak?

It says its just sulfuric acid and water, so it should work. Sulfuric acid is very strong though so be VERY careful. As for how long, that I don't know. I left my rocks in hydrochloric acid for 3 hours.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 21, 2018

Panky said:
Would this work? I have about 500lbs of rock that came from an aquarium that crashed during Hurricane Irma. Would this be safe to use on the rock? I use this for my pool, and the pool maint guy dropped off a gallon to me. If so, how long do I need to let it soak?

I don't see anything wrong with it for this purpose, but I also cannot tell how strong it is.