I was back to doing aquascaping stuff yesterday and decided to give my "seiryu" stones the muriatic acid treatment. Here's the before picture of all the rocks I got to work with.
Muriatic acid can be quite dangerous so I took all the recommended precautions.
Although in hindsight I should have used the carbon filters in addition to the particulate filters I had on my mask.
Here's the after shot of the rocks. They look wet but they are actually dry. The muriatic acid changes their look that much.
I soaked the rocks for exactly 3 minutes each to get this effect. I've read of people soaking them for longer but the acid eats away at the rocks so I wanted to err on the short side.
Here are some of the nicer rocks.
I noticed a few of the rocks were left with these gray patches. Not sure why, maybe I didn't soak them long enough in the acid or maybe it's a different mineral in these patches. Either way they blend in when the rock is wet.
And here's an updated shot of my evolving aquascape idea with the "new" rocks.
Thanks,
Harry