cure nasty live rock

whotzler · Sep 27, 2016

So I am purchasing some ones tank breakdown, that includes 250 lbs of live rock. I am wanting to use this in my 210gal tank I am setting up. The problem is the live rock is coming from a tank full of flat worms, red bugs, aiptasia, algae, algae, algae, all kinds of stuff I do not want in my tank.

What would be the best/fastest approach to making this rock 100% safe to use in my tank?

Joey waid · Sep 27, 2016

Muriatic acid, wash, sun, and time..

hatrix11 · Sep 27, 2016

Buying new rock [emoji24][emoji24][emoji24]. But seriously, there's a lot of threads out there about curing used live rock. It involves months of water changes. You pretty much need to bleed out the phosphates from the rocks using the physics of displacement. I'm looking into using lanthium chloride and or macro algae to expedite this process. Keep in mind I am not an expert and get as much other feedback as you can.

DeniseAndy · Sep 27, 2016

First off dry all of it out in the yard or deck or somewhere.

Then I would get a large tub and acid bath it. I used muriatic acid from home depot. Careful as to make sure you handle this with caution. use gloves, eye protection, and a face mask or shield. Make sure the tub has room for rock and then about 2ft more room on top for the bubbles. Then, add water to about cover rocks. Then add the acid. ALWAYS water FIRST! Give it 20m to 30min to cook. Keep pets and kids away. Drunk people too. :)

Then I used a huge bag of baking soda to neutralize it. You can also use drain cleaner. Let it sit a while. Then, rinse it all down with water (hose probably). Now let it bake in the sun again for over a week. Now you can begin curing it.