Bleaching My Rock Quick Question

I would think so. I've always done the double soak in RO - 3 days and 3 days again with RO/DI. I've done it with and without the baking soda - not real convinced it's necessary (the baking soda) but the double soak I feel is necessary.

The first soak tints the water IME, the second soak comes out real clean (not as clean as when you added the water, but no tint.

I also always let it dry out for a couple weeks. In my mind, that lets any residual chlorine break down as well as anything else.

 

funny

 

I started to soak it again last night. I figure i should let it soak for 4 days since the bleach may be dry and what not. I'll do the soaking twice and let it dry for a few weeks. Thank you for the help.

 

good luck with it. would be interested for you to update this thread in a couple weeks with results.

 

Update just for you Peredhil:

What I did after this thread:

1. soaked rock in ro/di for 3 days
2. Rinsed and placed in new ro/di for 3 days
3. Allowed to dry for 2 weeks
4. Made saltwater and placed rock in rubber made for 3 days
5. Tested water (everything came within acceptable ranges)(acceptable to me is either 0 or spot on depending on the test)
6. redid rock work
7. water change after 24 hours
8. water change 24 hours after 1st water change (I took ALL my rock out when I redid my rock work. Causing a lot of crud to get stirred up)
9. tested water (everything was good)

 

cool beans. is this the rock rework you did the other day when I said something about the xenia boulder? or we gettin new pics? ;D

After 2 or 4 in the steps you mention, was the water yellowish at all or any smell like originally or all good? I'd assume all good if it's in your tank now 8)

 

Those photos are with the bleached rock in the tank. I'm about to bleach that rock....

I saw no discoloration of the water after step 2. Step 1 had some discoloration, but not much. I wasn't sure about the safety of the rock so I performed step 4. This way I could test the affects of the rock on salt water. When everything came out good I redid my rock work.

 

Would the procedure be the same if the rock has been sitting dry for a year? The rock has dried algea on it and the remains of feather dusters. I want to get it into a new tank I'm setting up soon. So is the 50/50 bleach still the right course?

Matt

 

50/50 is on the high side if you ask me. but if the rock was never cleaned, it's still going to have dead matter. Probably mostly decayed, but the point of the nuking is to sterilize it. I would sterilize old live rock first.

 

So how should I go about sterilzing it?

Matt