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- Today here at BRStv Reef FAQs
we answer how to bleach-cure dry rock
for a saltwater reef tank.
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Hi, I'm Ryan, your host at BRStv Reef FAQs
is all about quick, straight to the point answers
to those questions reefers ask all the time.
Today we answer a pretty common question.
How do I bleach cure live rock to remove
all the undesirable organics,
prior to cycling it for a reef tank?
First there is a difference between curing
and cycling, and they are commonly confused.
Cycling is primarily about populating the surface
of the rock with bacteria which can process and filter
ammonia from the water, making it stable enough
to house fish.
Curing is a process of getting undesirable organics
like dead algae, dead sponges, microfauna, and other
undesirable pollutants off the surface of the rock,
and getting it ready to start a salt water reef tank.
There are three main methods:
natural, bleach, and acid curing.
Today is focused on the bleach cure, and we'll answer
three direct questions today.
What is the bleach cure?
When is it appropriate to bleach cure rock,
and how to do it.
Bleaching dry rock or a bleach cure is pretty much
what it sounds like: soaking the rock in a diluted
solution of water and bleach.
The bleach will oxidize the organics from the surface
of the rock, and then rapidly break them down.
By rapidly, in many cases, I think you can get a
complete cure done in a week,
and makes a longer natural cure unnecessary.
So, the primary advantage of bleach is speed, but it's also
going to kill basically every organism on the rock surface:
algae spores or undesirable bacterias.
A bleach cure is going to start from ground zero,
which is pretty desirable to many advanced reefers.
We did a BRStv Investigates on curing a while back
where we found soaking the rock for a week in bleach
cleaned it so well that there was no residual nutrient
spike from one to seven weeks in the natural cure that
we did immediately after.
Being a person wouldn't have bothered with that natural cure
after, and would move straight to some form of rock cycling.
Common question: Is bleach safe for the tank,
and the answer is used in this manner, yes.
In fact, if you let the rock dry completely, the bleach
would simply gas off and be reef-safe again.
But in our case, we're going to use a dechlorinator
and some simple test strips to be sure.
Related to safe,
is this a safe project for you personally?
And, I'm sure it's not as safe as a natural cure where
you just let the rocks soak for a couple of months,
but it can be done safely for anyone willing
to put in a bit of research and effort.
So, when is a bleach cure like this appropriate?
Well, that largely depends on the type of rock
they're using with four major categories:
actual wet live rock, dry rock from the ocean,
mined dry rock, and man made dry rock.
I've advice for each specific type of rock.
If you're able to find quality wet live rock
and paid the premium for all the life on it,
I don't think anyone would bleach the rock and kill
all the life, so I can't think of a common instance
where I'd recommend someone bleach cure wet live rock.
If you're using dry rock from the ocean which is covered
in dead or dried organics, or using rock from an older
tank which was allowed to dry out, which is often also
covered in dried organics, I'd say this instance is a
prime candidate for a bleach cure.
We can dramatically reduce the organic content on the rock
this way, kill everything including spores,
dormant bacterias, or other undesirables.
If you're using a dry mined rock like
Marco's Reef Saver Rock, it's super clean out of the box.
I've never found this kind of rock to have any organics
on it, so personally, I would not bother with something
as aggressive as the bleach cure for that reason.
However, if we're on the aggressive end of the prevent
pest spectrums, you could do a short bleach cure just
to ensure no spores or anything else is on the rock.
Same could be said of the man made rocks,
like real reef rock.
I would not personally bleach cure these either.
Double so because it might have an effect on the purple
color that some of these rocks use.
Okay, so all that said, you decided to bleach cure your
rock, which probably means that you either have
dry rock from the ocean or some type of old rock
from another tank which is dried out.
Before we get into this, there are two warnings
that I'd like to share.
This isn't just safety jargon.
It's legit.
First, bleach is a chemical
which inherently has safety risks.
Many people are familiar with household bleach safety.
But if you're using it outside of its intended use,
so there's more to it than just reading the bottle.
Simply put, this video is not designed to be the sole
source of information on chemical safety.
Do not do this project if you're unwilling
to do some research on proper safety.
We do have some basic safety guidelines to share.
First, do not do this indoors.
That means don't do it in your
basement or even garage.
In some circumstances, bleach can create very toxic
gases that range from unhealthy to deadly.
I always perform this outdoors in the open air
with a proper ventilator.
Most importantly, for the portions where your face is
directly above the rock.
You obviously want to use appropriate arms-lengths gloves,
eye wear and related protective gear,
and appropriate clothing.
To some of you this might seem like overkill because
bleach is just a household chemical.
But, just like a table saw which is generally safe,
even when making unique cuts, it's only when you
respect it and learn how to use it properly.
Second part of this is, this isn't an exact science.
This is a hobby.
What most the hobby knows is based on sharing personal
experiences, so I'd absolutely read up or watch what
some other personal experiences are,
as well as their approach.
This just isn't a rock solid, agreed upon bleach to water,
or bleach to rock ratio, but there is what we commonly see
done, we've done here, and we'll share that.
So, all that said, here's
the four step process we used here.
Step one is find a container which can hold your rock.
Bring it outside and fill it with water.
Most cases it'll likely be something like a
Brute trash can.
Most reefers like to use purified RODI water,
but in this case, tap water is probably also fine.
Step two: once you've filled it with water,
add your bleach.
You obviously want to use bleach which has no additives
or scents or soaps.
The unofficial, but generally recommended by most reefers
is to make a solution of one gallon of bleach
to ten gallons of water.
That was a ratio that we used in our BRStv Investigates
episode, and it seemed to work well.
Always make sure to add the bleach to the water,
not water to the bleach.
This will reduce the chances of splashing concentrated
solution around and undesirable reactions.
And, under no circumstances, add any other chemicals
to this solution, as bleach can form some pretty nasty
gases when mixed with other chemicals.
As the ration of one gallon of bleach to ten gallons
of water, that's more of a reefing community suggestion
than a precise figure.
I think it's actually probably less about the
bleach to water ratio, and more so the bleach
to organics in the rock ratio, meaning super dirty
rock can benefit from more oxidants or bleach,
and fairly clean rock potentially less so.
However, you can always add more later, and the risks
of using slightly higher ratio are pretty minimal.
Step three: add the rock to the solution
and then wait about a week.
By the end of the week there's a good chance a vast
majority of the organics will have broken down,
and the rock is ready.
If not, you can always add more bleach
and wait another week.
Step four: once we clean the rock, you should just remove
it from the bin and give it a quick rinse.
Technically speaking you can just let it completely
dry out and it would gas off all the excess chlorine,
but I think that'd be silly to rely on.
Almost everyone will fill the container back up
with fresh water, often RODI this time, and dose
a good amount of dechlorinator to the tank.
So, pick up a dechlorinator and dose that to eliminate
the chlorine from the rock.
The Brightwell Erase-CL or HIKARI's ClorAm-X
are both good options.
Give it a day to work its magic, and you can
often smell if it worked because chlorine has
such a strong smell, but I'd strongly recommend
picking up a pack of chlorine test strips
to be confident that chlorine has been handled properly.
You can use the left over test strips to know when
to change your carbon blocks on your RODI system later.
After that, give the rock another good rinse,
and if it's free of undesirable organics and pests,
it's ready to be cycled for the reef tank.
That's about all there is to it.
If you're interested in seeing that BRStv Investigates
where we test a variety of curing methods, there it is.
If you want to see the whole natural cure process,
we have it over here as well.
That little box over here has everything we've ever
done on rock: curing and cycling, aquascaping, how much
rock you need, so it's worth checking out.
See you in the next episode of BRStv.