Got Rock?!

[NewbReefer]

Just picked up a bunch of rock from a guys home in the local reef club where i live $80 for 4 bins of Utah Aragonite Rock/ Lake Bonneville Tufa Rock (LBTR) and as a added bonus he gave me a small calcium reactor.

I plan on taking some of the rock to a high pressure wash station and using the rinse feature to blast away any dirt or stuff that may be hiding in the holes and stuff. any suggestions to help me get some of this stuff clean and tank ready would be great!

A few pieces after a 30sec blast with the garden hose.

Calcium reactor

 

[Rcpilot]

DON'T TAKE IT TO A CARWASH!!!!!!!!!

A lot of carwash facilities recycle the water. It may be the "rinse" cycle, but it's recycled water through Gawd Only Knows what type of BS cheap filter they are using. No telling what kind of soap (surfactants) you may introduce. Don't do it man.

Fill those plastic bins with saltwater and put a power head in each one. Start curing it. Take each piece out every couple days and scrub it with a plastic brush to knock off the loose crap.

 

[NewbReefer]

hmm good point, a bunch of people in my local reefs forums cleaned some of there LBTR that way so i'll have to ask if they ran into any problems. thanks RC :)

 

[cumminz]

Hey, I live in Utah. Just thought I would mention that. Also, is there a problem with cleaning rocks with Vinegar-Water?

 

[RyanG]

Nice score! Theres a ton of nice looking pieces from what I can tell. The one is HUGE!

 

[NewbReefer]

Thanks, yeah i got a lot of pieces to go through.

Cumminz, what part of Utah? north? south? I think i may try soaking some of them for 12 hours in vinegar water then take em to the hose again and then start curing them,and clean from time to time while im curing em, unless someone else says to not.

 

[RyanG]

Dont use straight vinegar for that long IMO you would lose quite a bit of mass in the process. Thats what Im thinking but maybe Im wrong. Id wait for the Council of Knowledge to chime in.

 

[Bifferwine]

I wouldn't bother soaking them in vinegar. It's dry, dead rock so there won't really be anything living on there. Just a quick rinse in water should do the trick.

Just putting the rock into saltwater won't automatically cure it -- remember you need something to make it "live". Basically, you need to seed it with some existing live rock.

If you don't know already, be sure to find out if the rock was ever used in a tank that underwent copper treatment. If the previous owner can't tell you, I'd run a copper test on it while it's curing.

 

[NewbReefer]

definitely wouldn't ever use straight vinegar, if anything i would use maybe 1 for all 4 containers. the rock has never been used in a tank and was dug up near the Great Salt Lake salt flats so the reason for the vinegar would be to help break up any dirt still attached to the rock after i use the garden hose. for the most part the rocks are completely covered in dirt still to the point where i cant really see the shape of many of the rocks, i got some cleaning to do.

 

[cumminz]

I live in Northern Utah, Salt lake

 

[NewbReefer]

I live in Northern Utah, Salt lake

Awesome! pm sent

 

[cumminz]

Nice!

 

[fatman]

I would go with the vinegar or even hydrochloric acid (muriatic acid) in water. See Johns (jhnrb) write up in the articles section on cleaning live rock that has been in a tank where copper was used. It will fizz like alka seltzer added to water and you will etch away the surface but you will also etch away all the stuff on the surface that will not readily wash off. I would rather lose a 1/32 of an inch off the surface and know the rock was as clean as I could get it then take chances by just washing or soaking the rock.
https://www.livingreefs.com/articles/removing-copper-from-rock-t387.php

 

[NewbReefer]

yeah i want em clean before i introduce em to an established tank. thanks for the link to the article fatman.