I found some rock but... (1 Viewer)

[izzy]

I need help figuring out how to clean it.

A family member had to move out of state and broke his tank down about 5 years ago. With the intentions of setting his tank back up he stored all his rock in a 44 gallon brute filled with saltwater, a heater, and a powerhead. I assumed he was unable to take the brute container with him because I went by the garage where he stored it and noticed that it was still there. This garage is home to a bunch of cats and smells terrible, I didn't even want to go in. I noticed the lid on the container was halfway off and the powerhead and heater were not plugged in. I took the lid completely off and was surprised to still find water in it. Picked up some of the rock and was amazed of the amount of tube worms on it. I called my family member and told him about his lost treasure and he said for me to take it. I was planning on doing just that so I dumped the remaining water out and moved it over by my car. I then decided to leave it there since I was going back this Saturday, actually the wife said "You're not putting that in our car" which meant I had to come back on my next free day and load it without her in the car.

I'm pretty sure there isn't any bacteria on this rock after so many years so how do I clean it to reuse it? Is it even reusable?

 

[DaAznGuy]

Since there is no water, let it dry completely, spray off/scrub off any leftover junk you see on it. Then treat as Dry Rock. You will have to cure before use.

 

[Cody]

And most importantly, SOAK OUT THE PHOSPHATES! You will have nothing but headaches if you get impatient with this. Trust me, I've done it. With it sitting in those tanks for so long, and all the die off, the phosphates definitely rose, and it bonded to that rock. Soak it until you can go a week with an absolute zero reading on a Hanna checker. Anything above that, and you're setting yourself up for GHA on the rocks.

 

[izzy]

Thanks guys! I'll definitely check for phosphates while i'm curing. I've read somewhere before about using acid and baking soda. Anybody know about this method that would care to explain?

 

[Reefahholic]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif]About the only methods to remove phosphate that is bound to rock is to quickly Burn away the outer layer of the rock using muriatic acid, or by allowing the phosphate to come off slowly- into water that has low phosphate levels.

If you decide to do the second method, understand that you will not be very affective removing other undesirable junk (like organics) and you will need to keep the phosphate very low in ur water, either through very frequent water changes, or by using GFO or LC to take it out of solution as it dissolves off the rocks.

BLEACH is good at removing organics.

I would personally use Muriatic Acid. Do a 10:1 ratio for 15 minutes and you'll be surprised how quick and easy it is. I'm fixing to do some old rock. I'll document it. [/FONT]