Myka's 69 SPS Tank 2015 - Page 12

Myka · #**111** 06-06-2015, 11:40 PM

So I decided to acid wash the old formerly live, then dried dead rock. The latest reading was still over 100 ppm nitrate and 0.5 ppm phosphate after two 100% water changes (no change noted). I made some strong acid!

I managed not to burn myself though, so that's a bonus.

I donned goggles, beautiful yellow rubber gloves, and shorts, tank, and sandals (ha!). I bought two 900 mL bottles of muriatic acid and poured them into 1 1/2 gallons of tap water. I dipped the rocks one at a time, and overdid the first one in about 12 minutes - that's some powerful mix! The rest of the rocks got about a 5-8 minutes dip, tap water rinse, tap water plus baking soda rinse (1 1/2 containers baking soda and about 3 gallons of water), then back into the rock tub filled with RO. A couple hours later I test the RO at pH 7.8 so I guess the rinse was sufficient. I will test nitrate and phosphate in a few days and see if there was any progress.

Here's the first rock getting half dissolved (lol):

Doug · #**112** 06-07-2015, 12:00 AM

Braver than I

Myka · #**113** 06-07-2015, 12:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doug

Braver than I

It's not that bad Doug. I've acid washed rocks before in much lower dilution for a much longer time (hours rather than minutes), but I found that some rocks require more time, and others require less. So I decided to dip them one at a time. I didn't want to spend all day doing it, so I made the acid strong. I didn't realize it would be that strong! It took me less than an hour to do it all include setup and cleanup, and cost me $12 for the acid and 40 gallons of RO. Pretty straight forward as long as you're careful about splashing.

Myka · #**114** 06-10-2015, 12:22 AM

My journal is 10 pages and no tank yet! Haha. This changes on Thursday! :happydance:

Myka · #**115** 06-14-2015, 03:27 AM

Tank arrival! It's a thing of beauty! Dave's crew built an outstanding tank - they really did a great job. The tank even came in under the quoted price. There is a mistake though, a missing detail, which is why it was under quote.

I talked with Dave about it, and he took responsibility for the mistake like a true businessman, he even offered to replace the tank. I said I didn't want to do that to him, I didn't get charged for the missing detail anyway. I doubt anyone would notice if I didn't mention it. Let's see if you guys can figure out what it is.

I'll get some better pictures when there is better light in the house. The reflection on the glass was killing me! Oh, and sorry about the ghetto light stand - I don't have the light hanger installed yet.

Here you can see the size difference with my 50-gallon beside it.

Eurobracing detail.

Vinyl covering on the overflow box and weir overflow detail.

Perdy bevel and polish on all edges.