Bleaching used rock

[dpfish]

I'm hoping someone can help me with some questions on reusing old rock. I soaked these rocks in bleach for 6 days. I expected them to come out looking white and clean. They were all in a 5 gallon bucket, I used 1/2 gallon bleach and the rest RODI water. My guess would be 3 gallons water to 1/2 gallon bleach. Was my bleach not concentrated enough? Is it normal for them to come out looking like this? I'm only going to put a few of them in my existing system to fill in some holes. Any suggestions from people that have experience with this would be much appreciated.

 

[Fish Fan]

It's possible that the Chlorine in the bleach was exhausted before it oxidized all the organics. I think it may need another round of bleaching. In my experience, the rocks come out nearly like-new white again. Yours look like they still have organics bound to the rock. Good luck!

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Did you have powerhead in the bucket? Non moving water won’t do much

 

[dpfish]

Thank you for the quick response. I did not have a powerhead in the bucket. They were stacked pretty tight.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Sometimes I even put 2 powerheads if it’s a full bucket. The more water movement there is, the better the result will be. Good luck

 

[BasementBox]

To be honest I just did this with my live rock 8 months ago. I bought 3 bottles of bleach. Home Depot bucket. Dropped it all in and let it sit outside for 7 days. Dumped it out. Took the rocks. Rinsed with tap. Brought them in. Laid them out for two weeks. Once there was no bleach smell. Good to go.

 

[dpfish]

I ran everything again. This time I added more rock that needed to be done. Probably double the amount of rock as the first time. This time I use 3 gallons of bleach, about 15 gallons of water and about 40 bl of rock. It's been in for 3 days with a pump moving water around. A lot of the rock looked a lot better after the first day but some of them have not made any more progress. Do I need to add more bleach? I would think three gallons would have done it. Some of the rocks are still pretty brown.

 

[BasementBox]

I ran everything again. This time I added more rock that needed to be done. Probably double the amount of rock as the first time. This time I use 3 gallons of bleach, about 15 gallons of water and about 40 bl of rock. It's been in for 3 days with a pump moving water around. A lot of the rock looked a lot better after the first day but some of them have not made any more progress. Do I need to add more bleach? I would think three gallons would have done it. Some of the rocks are still pretty brown.

I would and ensure that the rock is submerged. When 7 days passed I had a thin congealed layer on the top. Granted it had more growing on it.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I had similar results when I bleached my rock and simply attributed it to inorganic deposits. Inorganic compounds don't "bleach" white. This rock had no visible organics on it when I began the bleaching step. Some were white-white white others had various levels of discoloration.

 

[GARRIGA]

Wouldn't testing for chlorine confirm that's not been exhausted?

 

[redfishbluefish]

Take your darkest rock and pour straight bleach on it and see if it continues to lighten. If it's inorganic, no change. Note it still will oxidize whatever is there, so you might see a slight change, but not tighty-whities white.

 

[dpfish]

I appreciate the advice. I think I will add a couple more gallons of bleach pouring it directly on the rocks that are still brown. If there's no change I guess I will call it good. I'm not worried about the color. My plan is to add a few of these rocks to an already established system. Everything has been running smooth, I really don't want it to have any negative effects.

 

[dpfish]

I added two more gallons of bleach to my mix. All together I had 5 gallons of bleach and about 13 gallons of water. It was soaking for about a week total. It doesn't seem like it changed it much. I'm pretty sure the ones that stayed purple are probably man-made rock. Do you guys think I'm good to dry it out / dechlorinate and just use it? I'm nervous about putting something in my tank that will have a negative effect. This is the second round of soaking them.

 

[dpfish]

Also, does anybody know what the white krusty stuff is? I can scratch it off with my fingernail.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Probably sort sort of deposited calcium carbonate if it did not dissolve in a water rinse.

 

[N2theUnknown]

Hey guys started bleaching my rock today....... and realized after I started that my bleach bottle has this little emblem (see attached photo.) Did I just ruin my rock or maybe someone can give some insight as to whats in this product as I cant find "ingredients" anywhere

 

[redfishbluefish]

I'm pretty sure I've seen this before and if I remember, the "fabric protection" were polymers that would be removed by rinsing or additional pure bleach wash. Let me see if I can find those posts.....I'll be back.

 

[N2theUnknown]

I'm pretty sure I've seen this before and if I remember, the "fabric protection" were polymers that would be removed by rinsing or additional pure bleach wash. Let me see if I can find those posts.....I'll be back.

Im also doing some research and found that it is polymers amongst other things. To keep grim from adhearing and also to help with fabric degradation. Ill try and do somemore digging.

 

[Jamie814]

Muriatic acid would be a better choice IMO, it dissolves/cleans the surface of the rock, removes vermetid snail tubes and other deposits better than bleach. At least that is what I always used. 50/50 dilution and only takes 5 mins to clean the rock.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I'm unable to find the old posts where this was discussed. Hopefully Randy will chime in.