Live Rock Cure

[Rread16]

I recently picked up some rock from a few different people some dry, some dead, and some with grown on it. Im looking to rebuild up my rock scape bigger. My plan was to do a bleach soak and have every start off fresh and clean. Wednesday I put all the rock in a bleach bath over night, mild bleach bath. I then showered down all the rock and but them back in the buckets a soaked them in freshwater and dechlorinator for a few hours. I then rinsed all the rock off again in the shower. Two pieces of the rock still looked pretty bad so I separated them and put them back in a chlorine bath.

Next, I took the rock and put it all together (minus the two pieces) in salt water to start the curing process. I have it at the correct salinity, and its sitting at 80 degrees. I have a pump about 3/4 of the way up blowing water down, and an air stone at the bottom. After about an hour, the water started to produce a foam or bubbles at the top. I Started to cure late Thursday afternoon and have been scooping out the top layer of water with the bubble on it a replacing in every few hours, about a half gallon at a time. I've also added a bag of ceramic media that I had in my sump and a small piece of rock for my tank, hoping to help speed up the bacteria growth. I also have a bottle of the quick start bacteria stuff, but i didn't want to add that until I figured out why it was bubbling.

My question is, are the bubbles normal, and if not what should i be doing to remedy the situation. Thanks for your help.

 

[diana a]

The bubbles are from organics still in the rocks.


Bleaching rocks should be done outside only...not even in your garage is safe. There can be a dangerous gas released.

Bleach mix ratio:

10:1
2 gallons of unscented bleach
20 gallons water

• Soak in the bleach mix for a week
• At the end of the week, change the water using fresh water
• add a declorinator to the water for 24 hours
• after the 24 hours, test with a chlorine test strip
• once you have 24 hour with 0 clorine on test strip, do another water rinse
• move rocks to salt water and soak for 3 to 4 weeks

You can't rush this process

 

[erics210]

I was thinking the same thing. A day or two then into the salt after a shower didn't seem right. Did one piece for a week in 10% bleach. Soaked overnight with pumps on in fresh, then let air dry for a few weeks before I started the salt curing.