Pics Of Live Rock Out Of Acid :)

[nmhs2]

OK so i dipped the rocks 15-20 minutes into muriatic acid 10:1 raito water to acid to rid them of any copper that was in them. After that i dipped them in cold tap water and cleaned them with a paint brush. I still need to clean them a little more as you can see, theyre soaking in water in the meantime. Do they look like normal base rock? Did I do it correctly?

[barbra]

I don't know what was wrong with the rock that got you going to such extreme measures, but you can be sure that there is no organic material left on the rock after the acid bath.

I would let it thoroughly air dry at this point.

[Envy07]

lol...that's some purely dead rock :P acid for sure made it lifeless

[boxerzz]

why do youw ant to kill a LR to make them base rocks ? LR can also be base rocks.

[Timinator]

He had some copper problems,looks good to me.

[coast2coast7390]

does acid really do anything to copper

[steven_dean17]

I must have missed that thread, I would however like to see it so I could file it away for a rainy day, any links would be great. thanks! steve P.S. that rock looks barren to me.

[sayn3ver]

muriatic acid (which is actually hydrochloric acid, HCL) will react with a various number of metals.

Unfortunately, copper is one of those that, in a diluted HCL + water solution, will not react. You would have to wait until enough water evaporates, and the concentration of HCL was great enough for the reaction to take place. I'd don't know for sure, but i believe with hydrochloric acid, the copper must be in a compound such as copper-oxide, -sulfate.

Cu + Conc. 2HCl ------> CuCl2 + H2
Cu + dil. 2HCl ------> no reaction

This however, would be difficult considering that the rock is made of CACO3, and would most likely dissolve before the copper is ever affected.


Others state that CU will never react with acids like hydrochloric acid which the reaction occurs based on swapping the hydrogen and metal ie zinc
Zn+ HCL --> ZnCl + H2 (gas)

This site http://www.uncp.edu/home/mcclurem/ptable/copper/cu.htm states that plain copper(Cu) will never react with hydrochloric acid ever, only other concentrated oxidizing acids like Nitric Acid. This is because the Cu, along with gold and silver, are low on the reactivity chart(with acids, meaning the switching of hydrogen and metal to create a metal salt and hydrogen gas).

Cu, will react with a concentrated form of HNO3(nitric acid) because its not the acid reaction that is affecting the CU, but the oxidizing effect from the NO3.

Cuprous Oxide, Cu2O reacts with dilute Nitric Acid, HNO3, in the cold to form a solution of Cupric Nitrate, Cu(NO3)2, and Copper, Cu.


Cu2O + 2 HNO3 ==> Cu(NO3)2 + Cu + H2O

Cuprous Oxide, Cu2O reacts with concentrated Nitric Acid, HNO3, or with dilute Nitric Acid, HNO3, on heating, when the Cuprous Oxide, Cu2O dissolves with evolution of Nitric Oxide, NO.


3Cu2O + 14HNO3 ==> 6Cu(NO3)2 + 2NO + 7H2O

http://www.ucc.ie/academic/chem/dolc...mp/nitric.html




It appears to me, that all you did was make the rocks looks really clean, without actually removing the copper that was giving you issues with your inverts.

[nmhs2]

Well before I even dipped them in the water/acid, they were testing for no copper in the polypad and copper tests, I just did it for a piece of mind that my tank would be safer for the future. I could tell it removed A lot of the outer surface of the rock, which is all i needed. Since the brass fitting was only present in the water for 4 days, it couldnt have had time to deeply penetrate the rock, and if it did it would only be the outer surface, and that and that is now gone. BETTER SAY THAN SORRY EH?

[Sk8r]

However, it was a brief exposure to copper: if any lifeforms had absorbed it, they are now gone. THat surely will help? No chemist, I. However...

I would keep this rock in a separate bin from the other rock you have curing [I know, I know, your place will have so many bins it will start looking like a mad scientist's workshop. Start re-curing this, but I would start it off with small snips of polypad in the filter, or small doses of cuprisorb. I don't know cuprisorb, but I do know polypad, and it is both a test and a remedy for copper: cut off a small bit, run it in the filter, and if it stays white, there is no copper in solution. If it turns aqua blue, there was copper, and the polyfilter is absorbing it and binding it up in its resin. Go on running small snips of polyfilter in the filter until you get no color, and by then it all will have been absorbed and bound to the resin.

The same treatment for the tank [1" snips of polyfilter] will produce similar results.

Once you are sure this rock is copper-free, set it to cure along with a small piece of live rock. It will take a while...but ultimately this will be good live rock. Back in dino days, we used to start with all base rock and one live rock IN THE TANK, and just stayed patient while the tank went through a very long cycle...like about 8 weeks before the sand enlivened and the life began to spread into the rocks.

I recommend keeping such things as primarily softies and lps in the resultant tank for about a year: they're tolerant of a 'dirty' tank bottom, and to a certain extent, the dirtier [within limits] and the more bacteria and worms and such the better when you're trying to coax life into rocks. I went from rock that looked like this [dry, from the bin] to some beautiful ledges and corallined terraces inside a year...no trouble saying there was life in that tank.

[nmhs2]

*sk8r* i gave the rock another good cleaning and let them air dry overnight i now have them in my main tank, because they were not tesing for copper on any tests and i ran carbon through them. Was that a bad move? I mean you cant really cure base rock right? all living forms are dead and there should be no curing, correct? Only reason is because i need to start aquascaping and those are my main builiding blocks

[amike5]

The purpose of curing that rock is to allow everything you just killed on the rocks to decompose without affecting your tank. You said it used to be live rock, now its decomposing base rock.

[stingythingy45]

You will still need to cure this rock.The organisms that were living in there are now dead and going to degrade.This is going to cause an ammonia spike followed by nitrite/nitrate.
Gee Sk8r,Dino days?
I know tons of hobbiest that use base rock to set up a tank.
There's so many pest that come in on typical LR.Best to start with a clean slate,so to speak.

[nmhs2]

Well that base rock is now in my main tank i just threw sand into and filled with ro/di, thats ok right? i srubbed it really good, so hopefully dieoff will be minimum and quick, it wont have any long term effects on my main tank will it?

[Newlin]

I don't think you will have any long term effects at all. You got rid of every thing that had the copper and if there is any left after you get it full of water, just put that pad in there and that will take care of it. All the life that was on the rock should have come OFF when you did the acid bath. That and you scrubbed it so your cycle should be at a minimum as far as the ammonia. You will get a lot of brown algae on this rock and that is okay. The rock will look like crap for about a month. But after that, all the other rock that you have will seed it and it will look better than ever. Just make sure that you don't put any corals of fish in the tank until you can get some snails to survive as said in the other post. Once they are good, get a clown or damsil to put in there to help it get through the little cycle if it has one. I wish you the best of luck bro.

[sayn3ver]

I agree, after the acid bath, I am sure there is nothing left on it to decompose as it probably removed all the aerobic bacteria along with the surface layer of the rock itself. The an-aerobic sections of the rock may have or not have been affected, but I'd imagine that wouldn't create a "cycle" per say.

Like others said, i'd isolate it in another container with saltwater and maybe place a snail or some other inexpensive invert in there to test the safety if the rock. for a few days or so.