Muriatic acid bath help

MMreef

MMreef

Active member
Hi, anybody here did a Muriatic acid bath for their LR? I have read many threads about it, but would like to hear some feedback directly from someone here on how to proceed. I have dry rock that I want to treat with it, mainly to remove any PO4 that might be in the rock. Thanks in advance.
 
maidia

maidia

Team CR
madjoe

madjoe

Premium member
Well i did it wont do it again lol put a 10lb rock in get a 5lb out i just use bleach now
 
MMreef

MMreef

Active member
madjoe said:
Well i did it wont do it again lol put a 10lb rock in get a 5lb out i just use bleach now
Click to expand...
Well, that's exactly what I want to avoid, read on RC to use 10% acid in ratio 1:10, Menards or Loves have concentrate of 38% acid, need to figure out how much to add to 30 gal. of water and for how long. Some people recommend leaving rock til is stops bubbling, others say max 20 min. , so not to dissolve too much of it.
 
MMreef

MMreef

Active member
I might just go with lanthanum chloride, safer method to remove PO4, especially now, before I set up my reef.
 
jrpark22000

jrpark22000

Premium member
I just use straight vinegar. It costs more, but is weaker and no dilution is needed. Let it sit in there for 30-45 min, then pull it out and scrub it down, then spray off the loose stuff with tap water. Put it back in for 30-90 min more. Pull out scrub again and spray. If the rock is white and all the stuff has come off your done.

With any of the acid methods, if you leave it in too long and you have pukani or other porus rock it'll weaken the rock and you'll get some breakage of weak areas. Otherwise, works like a champ. I just vinegar bathed two rock from my tank this morning to kill palys and the black sponge.
 
MikeyB

MikeyB

Member
I did a bath of all my rock about a year ago and for me it was the best thing i did. When i first set up my tank I didn't know nearly what i did now so i just tossed rock in there and always had issues with PO4 and algae and dying coral etc.. But anyway..

What i did was set up my buckets, fill it up with water and just poured some acid in it, let it sit for 20 mins or so and then deactivated it with baking soda.. I never measured or made sure it was 10:1 or any of that. My rock lost a little mass to it, but it was no where near 50%
 
sk8elenex92

sk8elenex92

Premium member
I did this to my pukani when I was starting my tank. I just pored in 3 gallons into a garbage can with water. Didn't really measure anything. Did it 30 min and then used baking soda. The Rock was very dirty and smelled when I first got it. After giving it a bath it was sparkly white. It deft did weight less after. I would for sure do it again.
 
T

#theMatrix

Active member
How long after this process can the rock go back into the tank?
In case in was to do it as half side of the tank 1st. Then the other.
 
MikeyB

MikeyB

Member
I did my acid bath, gave them a good rinse with a little power washer, did a couple of dunks in some RO water and put them back in the tank. All done in the same day
 
B

bfin3

New member
I used muriatic acid and I ended up with about half the rock I started with, I probably left it soaking too long. If you do it use a much larger container than you think you need and don't let it sit too long.
 
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