You didn't say how much rock this is. Having worked in different ways with all kinds of rock that was in all kinds of condition, my advice is to put some or all of it in a mature, running tank that currently has a greater amount of good mature LR than the amount of rock you are putting in. If there's no running tank to put very much of it into, here are the alternate steps I would take: 1) do a complete water change in it's present container using at least some LW from a healthy running tank, 2) put mature LR in with it, as much as possible while retaining enough open space for circulation, 3) put some Macroalgae in with it, and 3) give it good light. Why light? Because with light, LR grows more alive. Light grows algae. Algae is the basis of all life. Without light, algae can't grow and when algae can't grow, first level bugs starve. When bugs die, the bugs and larger animals up the next step of the food chain tend to starve and die. Not good. Because algae will be growing it will be necessary to add some Snails to keep nuisance algae under control. If you haven't figured it out already, this makes the present container of this rock into it's own reef aquarium. ** Lastly, if you find that coral is irritated or growing poorly in the presence of the new rock, use AA to remove PO4 and silicates and use http://www.poly-bio-marine.com/products.htm" rel="nofollow - Poly-filter . Poly filter cleans the strange deleterious pollution which is emanating from the dead stuff inside the dead LR that's irritating coral. Aloha, Mark P.S. To be honest, I've never used Muriatic Acid. I find it's unnecessary when using the steps above. Most dead dry LR that is placed in a healthy reef aquarium will recover within a few months. I've also seen how long it takes for acid washed LR to grow into good LR. The method above is much quicker.
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