Base rock question

[Eloy Cardenas]

I am in the process of starting up my 75 gallon tank. I purchased some base rock pretty cheap from my local store... My question is should I just rinse it with RO water or clean it with bleach and water? Rock seems pretty clean so not sure how much to clean it. Thanks.
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[snakeblitz33]

There's a bunch of ways to clean it. Some people soak it in bleach for a month. Others soak it in muriatic acid for less than an hour. Some people, like me, rinse the dust off and add it to the tank and deal with any algae that arises from it.

Just depends on your time, money and resources.

 

[Eloy Cardenas]

There's a bunch of ways to clean it. Some people soak it in bleach for a month. Others soak it in muriatic acid for less than an hour. Some people, like me, rinse the dust off and add it to the tank and deal with any algae that arises from it.

Just depends on your time, money and resources.

Hey Snake.. I knew you would be the first to respond. Was just reading your post to the money pit thread... LOL.. I have plenty of time. I am still gathering and waiting for parts to come in.. I really don't want to wait a month... I thought since it seems pretty clean a good rinse would do. But don't want to deal with algae later.. What to do??? If I go the bleach route why 1 month for bleach. I would think bleach would kill anything in minutes or seconds.

 

[seecrabrun]

I just bought some dry rock rubble and decided to soak it overnight in saltwater and then test the phospates. Yup! Over .25 on the test just from a 24h soak.

I'm battling GHA in my tank and it ONLY grows on the 2 dry rocks I added. I didn't have a problem until I added them in January, and now I've been battling it for almost 2 months.

I think the rocks are leaching phosphate, just enough to feed the GHA. It is also veeeeeery slow growing. As I said, been battling it 2 months and it is still less than a centimeter long, and I don't have anyone in there eating it. I wanted to try and get rid of it without adding a specific critter to eat it, but now that I've come to the decision it is the rock and it'll be there until the rock stops leaching, then I am going to get something to eat it.

thinking of a lettuce sea slug because then I can feed it the algae I harvest from my refugium when the GHA finally vanishes.

 

[Eloy Cardenas]

Very interesting. I will do what you did. I will place it in water and test it. See if I get any phosphate in the water...Does it need to be saltwater or will RO water do???

 

[seecrabrun]

I think technically it could be either, but I just used some salt.

I washed it really good first, cause it was 25lbs of rubble. I found a mumified lizard LOL

 

[lmforbis]

I bought a sea hare. It does a great job. The fact that your GHA isn't growing much is a good sign. Mine was growing really fast. I reduced light cycle, reduced feeding and switched to RO water. This was a couple months ago and it stopped growing and the sea hare ate most of it. Now I have to feed him though because he did such a good job clearing the GHA.

 

[seecrabrun]

It's been a pain in the butt because the tank's nutrients were already low.

First of all, since the first of January it has been a fishless tank. So I put in a tiny bit of food now and then to feed the CUC. Tests were always 0 for everything until I put the rock in. Then I started getting phosphates. I thought I was just overfeeding the CUC, so I cut back. I added more algae to my HOB refugium, some weeks I'd get 0 and some I'd get a slight hint of phosphate.

Then I added a scooter blenny, which only eats pods. So it doesn't add much to the nutrient level. I started training it, so adding a little frozen food, without rinsing it. Started rinsing it. Added more algae to the refugium. Added more CUC. Tried phosguard. Added some corals that I feed once a week with frozen mysis directly to the heads. So added a little more nutrients.

Still this whole time my phosphates flicker between nothing and something and since I only had the API test, I didn't know how high that something really was. Never was the color of the .25, but was sometimes not the color of the 0.

Finally ordered a Hanna checker and currently I get 0. I get 0 for nitrates, sometimes I get up to 5 for nitrates.

So I really don't think it is the inhabitants or the food I feed. I think it really is the rock. So I've decided to stop chasing it and just let it be. It'll run its coarse and until it does I'll keep any additional frags I put in the tank away from those 2 rocks.

 

[snakeblitz33]

Bleach dissolves organics, which can be on or within the rock, which can be removed after a good soak in it and a couple of water changes.

Muriatic acid will eat through and dissolve any organics, including freeing up inorganic phosphates. It will also turn calcium carbonate rock into soup, that's why the soak is short.

I prefer to deal with the algae. It's something a proper cycle, and a good phosphate reactor can fix in a matter of a couple of weeks.

Algae is not something that has to be feared. It happens. You will have to deal with it eventually. Don't fret. There are ways of managing it- and the quicker you get experience, the better.