replacing rock...any thoughts?

[nightfire76]

hey guys i finally got enough rock to finish my display tank comepletely and it didnt cost me anything...was all given to me by a buddy at our local reef club and it looks awesome anyways though the rock though will have to be de phospated.....if thats even a word lol....it is dead and clean other then that....i just want to make sure i dont get any phospate leaching out so i was gonna have it soak in ro di water for a few weeks, however after that im not too sure what to do...should i take the time to cure that rock and then replace the rock in my tank with that or could i maybe get away with taking my corrent rock out and just placing that dead rock in? my current rock in the tank should be cooked.....has too much hair algae for my liking.....my worry here is if i take out my present rock to just put in that dead rock i might disturb my bio-filter too much....any thoughts on this?

 

[nightfire76]

ive read that Muriatic acid can be used over a matter of a few minutes to clean it of po4 but some dont believe it to work and rather do a normal cooking of it and it also eats the rock away some....by how much does it/will it eat away?

 

[Big Ray]

Hello,
replacing the LR will send your tank into another cycle.

I would move the rocks you have to the sump area, and put the new rocks (after soaking it in RO/DI for a week or longer making sure po4 reads close to zero) in DT, use them all.

Hair algae will just come back ... you need to find the source of the problem and correct that, changing live rock will just make it worse ....

 

[Big Ray]

ive read that Muriatic acid can be used over a matter of a few minutes to clean it of po4 but some dont believe it to work and rather do a normal cooking of it and it also eats the rock away some....by how much does it/will it eat away?

you can use acid to resolve the rocks in (assuming they are caco3 ? )
, but it will not do anything to po4.

 

[nightfire76]

Muriatic acid supposedly removes po4 and many have said it worked

 

[Big Ray]

Muriatic acid supposedly removes po4 and many have said it worked

Acids, dissolve CACO3.

when you put acid on a base, the acid will MELT the base

so let me explain to you what they mean by that .

po4 is often precipitated into coralline algae or anything else, (sand or .... basically any hard calcium carbonate based) same goes with copper and....

so when you put the rock in Acids, (vinegar) the caco3 bonds will weaken, and break apart, so the caco3 along with the copper or po4 or what ever other Ions precipitated can be washed off

its best to place it in RO/DI Water, and test for po4 first to see .

 

[nightfire76]

i can do that but it is a waste being that for a fact it has phospate in it lol and i understood the bonding of po4 to calcium but had no clue what the crap caco3 stands for i dont remember those....barely remember what po4 it lol anyway what ya just said is the exact reason to use acid then so po4 is washed away from the rock....or am i messing something