Curing rock...bleach question

[Eisen McD]

Hi All, very close to starting my first reef tank after a few years of freshwater keeping. I purchased Pukani dry rock from BRS, and plan to cure that, and had a question

Plan is to....

1) hose rock off
1) Bleach bath (10:1....RODI:bleach) - 7 days
2) hose rock off (while changing out water)
3) RODI bath - 3 days
4) hose rock off (while changing out water)
5) RODI bath with baking soda - 3 days
6) hose rock off (while changing out water)
7) RODI bath - 3 days
8) saltwater cure (using RODI) - 3 weeks
9) 100% water change
10) saltwater cure 2 (using RODI) - 2 weeks

and then....

begin a 2 month cycle! LOL


My question is the bleaching part. I bought 2 very cheap powerheads with the sole purpose of being for the curing process only. $10 each, but 800 GPH! Sounds good, only for use in the curing process. I figured 1600 GPH is by far good enough for the little 40 LB of rock I'll be working with. But....when doing the bleach solution, is it preferable (or not) to have the powerheads in there? I was thinking so, but wanted to verify?

Also, seems like a LONG process, but I certainly want to do it RIGHT. no rushing for me. But, is this overkill?

[bmitchell138]

Hi All, very close to starting my first reef tank after a few years of freshwater keeping. I purchased Pukani dry rock from BRS, and plan to cure that, and had a question

Plan is to....

1) hose rock off
1) Bleach bath (10:1....RODI:bleach) - 7 days
2) hose rock off (while changing out water)
3) RODI bath - 3 days
4) hose rock off (while changing out water)
5) RODI bath with baking soda - 3 days
6) hose rock off (while changing out water)
7) RODI bath - 3 days
8) saltwater cure (using RODI) - 3 weeks
9) 100% water change
10) saltwater cure 2 (using RODI) - 2 weeks

and then....

begin a 2 month cycle! LOL


My question is the bleaching part. I bought 2 very cheap powerheads with the sole purpose of being for the curing process only. $10 each, but 800 GPH! Sounds good, only for use in the curing process. I figured 1600 GPH is by far good enough for the little 40 LB of rock I'll be working with. But....when doing the bleach solution, is it preferable (or not) to have the powerheads in there? I was thinking so, but wanted to verify?

Also, seems like a LONG process, but I certainly want to do it RIGHT. no rushing for me. But, is this overkill?

IMO you don't need the powerheads for the bleaching process. And I personally would not use RODI water for the bleaching process either. Also, if you're not in a big hurry (which you shouldn't be :) ) I would bleach for a week then set the rock out to sun dry for a week or so then continue with steps 3 thru 10.

[Eisen McD]

thanks for the response! I really didn't want to use RODI for the bleach step either....but was afraid to NOT use it. :( You think I can get away with it?

As for drying, good idea! I've been looking over the forums for how others have done it, and I did catch many having long outside dry times. I do want to get the bleach off before it dries though....so what if I did it after step 7 (I.e. before it starts the normal saltwater cure)?

[billdogg]

That sounds like a lot of work. If it were me, I'd rinse it well and be done with it. The bleach will evaporate within 24 hours, the baking soda - why?

[Eisen McD]

I had read somewhere that the baking soda in RODI "bath" would eliminate the bleach effect, and remove it from the equation for the future stages of the cure. Again, just another aspect of some other methods I found in various forums, was trying to incorporate the best of all of them.

[davehead86]

Ive successfully bleached my rocks with way less effort.

Dump rocks into tub. Pour bottles of bleach over them, half full, other half regular water from the tap or hose.

Let sit for a few days until things start melting way.

Remove bleach and water, scrub excess crap off rocks.

Clean container out of all the crap you scrubbed, add rock back.

Cover with water from the tap or hose. Add the correct amount of PRIME. Let sit, then repeat until the rocks and water dont smell like bleach (did this twice for my rocks).

DONE completely in about a week. Sparkling white rocks. No invasive anything to be seen.

[Eisen McD]

hmmm, that does sound way easier. so....what is "prime". I'll have to google that, but is that a neutralizing agent of some sort?

[davehead86]

hmmm, that does sound way easier. so....what is "prime". I'll have to google that, but is that a neutralizing agent of some sort?

Yep it will neutralize everything that's bad from the TAP water and it eliminates chlorine from the bleach.

If you'd like you could rinse the rocks in RODI before putting them in the tank, but PRIME wont hurt anything.

http://www.seachem.com/prime.php