Confirming I did it right so I don't nuke my tank: Acid washing old live rock

Nooooooooob1 · Nov 17, 2019

So I'm moving to a new tank because my old one was a disaster. Pests everywhere. I dipped my corals last night and moved them over and there had to be 100 flatworms that came off my one hammer. It was nuts. Anyways, I started the new tank with 30lbs of dead dry rock and am adding another 40 lbs from my old tank.

I did a 10-15 minute muriatic acid bath for all the rock from the old tank. The rocks came straight out of the tank and into the bath. Pulled from bath, sprayed with hose and they basically all turned white. It was awesome. I spray rinsed and then did a soak rinse back in the bucket with water and baking soda. Then I did a quick bleach bath. Removed from bucket, sprayed with hose, and back in the bucket with clean water to rinse. Rocks are now on the shelf drying.

With naked eyes at least, I am unable to see any organic life on these rocks other than some coloration left behind from algae. No more vermatids, worms etc. All seems to be gone. Is there anything else I need to do to them to make them safe for the new tank? How long should I let them dry? A day? A week?

cmaxwell39 · Nov 17, 2019

I would let them dry at least until you can't smell any bleach, but even better than that would be to put them in clean RO water and test for chlorine. If any is present run a decholorinator to remove any residual bleach from the rocks.

Nooooooooob1 · Nov 18, 2019

cmaxwell39 said:
I would let them dry at least until you can't smell any bleach, but even better than that would be to put them in clean RO water and test for chlorine. If any is present run a decholorinator to remove any residual bleach from the rocks.

That sounds like a good idea! I will make a Brute full of RODI this week and let them soak in dechlorinator for a few days.