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chuckdallas
06/06/2011, 06:46 AM
I have 3 rather large pieces of rock that I found next to a bush in the garden. I found these 4 months ago, so I wrote to see how to determine of they are suitable for the aqaurium. A few people wrote in and said to drop a teaspoon or two of vinegar on the surface to see if it bubbles, which is supposed to indicate that the rock is carbonate based. Okay the term "carbonate based" may be wrong, I just remember people saying add some vinegar and see if it bubbles up, which it did. I never used the rock in the tank, so I left it up against the edge of the house for 3 months here in Miami. I purchased a lot of frags at the local Frag Swap 2 weeks ago and don't have larger flatter rocks for zoas and acans to "spread out" while they are growing, so I want to use these rocks to make good bases for them.

Ok, to the point. I rinsed them twice with tap water, then put them in a rubbermaid tub with about a 1/2 cup of bleach and a powerhead for 1.5 days last week. Dumped the water out and added more fresh water and added a cup of vinegar yesterday. Will soak for 2-3 days, then rinse, lather and repeat. Okay, no lather, just kidding. After the second rinsing with fresh water, I plan to drain the freshwater and add new salt water with the powerhead. The rubbermaid is covered, so I shouldn't be getting any errant dust or many particles in the tub.

Can I throw a piece of fresh shrimp into the tub as soon as I add the salt water to start the cycling process sooner or should I go shrimp-less for a week first? I was planning on just glueing the new frags to the newly cleaned dry rock without cycling, but everyone here told someone else on anotehr thread that it would be better to wait the 2-4 weeks it takes to cycle the new rock.

Crusty Old Shellback
06/06/2011, 10:52 AM
Rinse a few times in fresh water and then let them dry out. Then soak in SW for a day and add to your tank when redy. Don't worry about starting bacteria on them, that will happen when they get in your tank if you already have some estabilished rock in there. If not, just pick up a piece of LR from a friend or LFS and toss in the tank with your new rock. Everything will work out fine.

I've actually used lace rock from my FW aquarium with no problems. It's now covered with a little of everything, including some mussles that I don't know where they came from.

njdevilsfan
06/06/2011, 12:35 PM
i would do a muriatic aicd bath 1 gal to 5gallons water
to really clean and release any possible phos from the rock

chuckdallas
06/06/2011, 02:19 PM
If the rocks were ever in an aquarium and had phosphates built up in them, would the phos remain in the rocks if they were not exposed to salt water and reef creatures all day long (like in the aquarium)? Does muriatic acid strip all of the phos out? I just want to slice the 10-15 pounds of rock into "plates" for zoa & acan frags to have a base to grow on to.

chuckdallas
06/07/2011, 05:26 AM
Well, after a day of bleach and tap water, then rinsing the rocks and soaking them in vinegar and tap water for a day, today, I'll dump all of the new tap wate rout and let them dry. Tomorow, I'll add new salt water and begin the curing process with a raw shrimp. I plan to slice up least one of the rocks to use as base rock for some acan and zoa frags I have.