Curing Dry Rock With Ammonia?

[usatennisfan]

So I have a bunch of rock that used to be live but due to one thing or another the tanks the rock was is had to be taken down. Said rock has been outside in storage tubs for months. I want to set those tanks back up with the same rock but worry about organic debris causing chaos with the water and hair algae. My LFS told to to cure it with a 19 part water 1 part bleach solution. My problem is that using bleach on something that will eventually be in an aquarium scares me. A lot. So my question is can you cure the rock with ammonia instead? My reasoning behind asking is because if for some reason all of the ammonia is not rinsed off there is no negative to it since it will help jump the cycle. Anybody have any thoughts? Please share your two cents.
Thanks,
-Stephen-

[ReachTheSky]

You can use the ammonia but it's no where near as effective at cleaning than bleach.

Don't let bleach scare you. If it's cleaned off properly, it will not cause any harm. In fact, many of us use bleach to clean our aquarium filter socks. :) You can dip the rocks in a solution that's 5% bleach and 95% water for an hour or so, rinse it off thoroughly, let it dry out in the sun and you should be good to go.

[jgsteven]

I wouldn't worry about bleaching something if you take precautions. The bleach will eventually break down into being just salt. I bleached some dead-rock with a fairly strong bleach solution about six months ago, and its now happy live rock in my tank. What I did was:

0. Make sure you buy unscented bleach
1. Bleach the rock
2. Two-bucket rinse in a bucket of water containing dechlorinator (e.g., first bucket, then second bucket)
3. Let in dry a warm area until totally dry (a couple weeks)
4. Cycled in a bucket of tank water for ~1 month or so (put water change waste water, old filter media, some fish food, and a pump in a bucket)
5. Added to tank

[Steveb]

I agree bleach is fine.. You can always add de*chlorinator to the water after the bleach soak if your really concerned... Could also drain the bleach off, rinse the rocks and soak them in some muratic acid. That does 2 things - neutralizes any remaining bleach (be aware bleach and muratic acid liberates chlorine gas) and two knocks off the outer layer of the rock that may have phosphates binding to it.

Also w/Ammonia you would have to find a pure source. All of the ammonia I have seen in the groceries and big box hardware stores has a surfactant added to it.

[Digitalelectric]

Bleach breaks down much faster than you would think, especially if aerated. I did a bleach bath on some extra rock the other day to make my rock wall higher. Its already in a tub of rodi water chlorine free.

[Pumpkin Bear]

You can definitely jump start the cycle with cleaning ammonia. I've done it with my quarantine tank. It works great. But if cleaning the LR is your primary objective, then what the others have said about bleach holds true.