Curing Pukani Live Rock

Hey guys and gals! So yesterday I went out and bought 16 lbs of Pukani live rock from my local reef store. I know I bought more than I needed but I was cut a deal on the rock for being a loyal customer and I have another tank I can use the extra in. Now the rock will be going in a brand new nano 20 gallon tank (the thread for the new tank will be coming soon with pictures so don't worry ;D) but I want to make sure I try and get out as much dead organics from it as possible so not as much phosphates aren't leached into my system causing a spike. Basically I want the rock as clean, ready, and leached out as much as possible before going into my tank. I'm taking this one super slow and having as much patience as possible so I'm not too concerned about time. Now I read a thread on here that mentioned spraying off the rock with regular water, scrubbing it possibly, and then letting it sit outside in the sun to dry for about a week or so, is it necessary to do this step? Yesterday I did a 5 gallon WC on my other 20 gallon tank and used that water to put into the bucket that the pukani live rock is in. I have a heater in there and a powerhead going. Should I backtrack and and maybe take that rock out and then spray it off with regular water and let it sit outside or just keep going with what I am doing? I'm going to do water changes on the bucket at least once a week as well as add microbacter7 to hopefully help the process and I'm willing to do this about 6-8 weeks till it is done leaching. If I missed anything or if anyone has any other suggestions please feel free to advise me.

 

Get some strong acid. 30% hydrochloric and water is marketed as "Muriactic Acid" (HCL/water), any pool supply or Lowes/Home Depot will carry it for pretty cheap. If you are chemistry savvy, sulfuric would actually be the best on organics, but HCL will work just fine.

Anyway, put your new pukani in a bucket of tap water (always add acid to water, never the other way another), slowly pour in a little bit of Muriactic until you see a fair amount of gas bubbles coming off the rocks. Remember, you want to remove a thin outer layer, not dissolve your rocks, so don't over do it.

Let this go for a few hours, then neutralize the acid solution with a baking soda slurry, and safely dipose of the liquid.

Power wash or hose off the rocks really well, making sure any chunks of organics are removed. Soak the rocks in alkaline ro/di water for a 2-3 days.

Seed and cycle.



Use eye protection and gloves, Muriactic isn't too bad, just wash your skin if you get any on you because it will burn a little.

Pour the neutralized acid bath down a toilet, its no different from bathroom cleaner.

 

No need to let it sit outside, that does nothing.


You could also just cure it in old water change water Add a power head, heater, and small piece of LR, and it should be good in a few months.

 

Alright thanks! This has been great help and I will take one route or the other but at least I can get the process moving

 

So you say live rock so I am a little confused? Is it uncured? If yes why not just use it to cycle the tank?

If it is cured then no reason to clean

Basically sounds like you are turning it back to base rock and then reseeding correct?
So assume you have some live rock to seed it with or just using microbacter as mentioned?

 

I totally read that as dry Pukani base rock. The acid wash was meant for base rock, forget what I said.

 

Ohhhhhh yeah I was a little curious about that. This was Pukani rock that was taken from the ocean (not just dry base rock) from what I was told and then boxed up and shipped to the local reef store I go to. I don't know all the details on that though so I may be leaving some of the finer details out. But the rock did arrive in boxes wrapped in wet newpaper but everything inside was moist but not enough to keep anything alive. It sort of smelled like damp newspaper that had been sitting for a little while. Basically everything on the rocks is dead as far as I'm concerned but I don't know if I should still spray it off or if I should leave it in the bucket and continue to do water WC every week for a month or two? I just want as much of the dead stuff off and not going into my tank basically. I was told to let the rock sit in a bucket with a powerhead and heater for a few days, shake the rock off in the water and then I would be able to place it into my tank. Granted it can't kill anything because I don't have anything in there besides one piece of live rock but the tank has cycled already without all the Pukani and I'm going to say it's safe to assume that if I throw it in there now the tank will cycle again.

 

You want to remove as much of the exterior organics as possible. So yes, a hose off or even a careful pressure wash will knock most of that stuff off.

It will still need a couple months curing before its ready for your tank.

do a search for "curing live rock"

 

alright thanks! I will go ahead and spray the rock off today since we have nice weather today and then put it back into the bucket. You think that 2 months will suffice for time? or can i lean more towards the month time frame? I didn't know if the addition of Macrobacter7 would help speed up the process some and push more towards the month time frame.

 

Read these

http://www.3reef.com/forums/live-rock/great-threads-about-lr-75674.html