Cleaning Driftwood and Lava rock

[Cgy_Betta_Guy]

Hi

I just recently bought some used mopani wood and rocks and it appears that the previous owner had some major problems with algae in their tank. They had decommissioned their tank about 2 years ago. The wood seems to be caked over in green and it quite possibly could have been cyano bacteria from the coloration. The rocks seem to be some kind of porous lava rock and are also dark green looking. I havent attempted to clean any of it off yet but was wondering if there are any suggestions as to how to completely clean off the green from these items? I thought about boiling it but I dont have anything big enough to drop the individual pieces into. Also is there any risk to just simply dropping it into my tank as is? Will the dried algae be able to cause new algae or cyano and any possibility of bacteria or virus etc being carried on it? Also, and this is probably a stupid question, there were lots of dead snail shells on the items... any possibility that eggs for pond snails go dormant when taken out of water?

Thanks!

 

[BillD]

Put them in a container of water and bleach, with enough bleach to make the water feel slippery. Let it soak, and then scrub with a bristle brush if it doesn't come off on it's own. Give it a good rinse and soak in water with some vinegar which will neutralize the bleach. Rinse well and should be ready to use.

 

[spoonman]

+1 on BillD post. I also usually soak them one more time in water with 4x the normal amount of dechorinator in it just to be sure. That will do the same thing as the vinegar step. It will neutralize the bleach and you wont have the vinegar smell. If you have any of the bleach smell left dont put it in the tank.

 

[mgamer20o0]

just use a brush and scrub them. also try hot water. if its been dried everything would be dead.

 

[Cgy_Betta_Guy]

I just figured the lava rock would be a huge pain since its so porous and might break apart easily... I will try scrubbing it a bit and see if anything happens.