maligne Posted July 28, 2016 Report Share Posted July 28, 2016 I spent the week end up at the cottage and collected a bunch of rocks for my tank. I did a bunch of research and went out to home depot and purchased a small bottle of muriatic acid. I applied the acid in a small spot to every rock to check for carbonate hardness. Now that I have done this I cant find much info about how to clean the acid off of the rocks before I put them in the tank. Just wash them in water? I have them soaking right now. I only used a few drops per rock so not very much. Has any one done this before? cheers Tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FunkSolid Posted July 28, 2016 Report Share Posted July 28, 2016 If you rinse them well in tap water they will be fine (dilution is the solution to any pollution). To use an abundance of caution you can add baking soda, which will neutralize any remaining acid. The beauty of HCL is that it fully disassociates into H+ and Cl- which is "non-toxic" in terms of fish tanks and those concentrations. If your using Edmonton tap water (and not altering it in any way) its liquid rock (GH ~176mg/L), and the rocks you choose will not alter the chemistry in any way. Its always good to sterilize them, so that any pathogens dont hitch a ride into your tank. Heating in oven >80C (not too hot), bleaching, that kinda thing. Hope that helps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maligne Posted July 28, 2016 Author Report Share Posted July 28, 2016 Awsome that's what I thought I just wanted to hear it from some one el's. I soaked em in bleach and then ran them through the dish washer. Should be good!! Thanks again Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FunkSolid Posted July 28, 2016 Report Share Posted July 28, 2016 Awsome that's what I thought I just wanted to hear it from some one el's. I soaked em in bleach and then ran them through the dish washer. Should be good!! Thanks again Cheers! Lol thats genius! I never thought of using the DW as a home use autoclave. Thats the antimicrobial trump card for sure. Nice work ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomethingIsFishy Posted July 29, 2016 Report Share Posted July 29, 2016 Isn't there a rinse agent in the dishwasher? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FunkSolid Posted July 29, 2016 Report Share Posted July 29, 2016 Isn't there a rinse agent in the dishwasher? Thats a good question. My assumption is that it flashes off in the heat of the DW and takes water with it, preventing stains/deposits. Because we can drink water from glasses right out of the DW, i'm hoping its the same for fish...... But probably worth a really good scrub/rinse after to make sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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