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vacuumlad

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Oct 30, 2014
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221
Hey we have plastic and silk plants in aquarium and they seem to gather algae rather quickly. So I was looking for The best way to get all the algae off. There's also this kind of fake stone thing we got from Petsmart that has algae all over it. The lights are on for about 10 hours a day and I can't reduce it anymore because I like to see the fish in the morning and in the evening. I saw some guy on YouTube put them in the dishwasher with him bleach or vinegar to seem like a pretty good idea to me so would that work?


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In one aquarium we also have a few porous and nonporous rocks. Could I put these in the dishwasher with the vinegar solution also?


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Take a 5 gallon bucket. Place the items to be cleaned in the bucket. Cover them with warm water. Add some unscented chlorine bleach. (I usually use a couple of capfuls) I usually let it sit for about 10 to 15 minutes. Then I take a small decor brush and scrub any remaining algae. It comes off easily at this point. Empty the bucket. Rinse well. Cover items again with water in bucket. Add some Prime. Soak at least 10 minutes. Check items for any residual chlorine by smelling closely. If you smell any chlorine repeat the Prime.

I've been doing this for several years now with no adverse effects. I caution that anytime you use bleach to clean anything going in the aquarium, it must be thoroughly dechlorinated. I know it sounds more complicated than it really is.

I personally would stay away from the dishwasher because there are too many variables. I can control what has been in the bucket much easier than I can control what has been in the dishwasher that might contaminate my aquarium decor.
 
I forgot to mention, but I do clean my rocks as I described above. However my rocks are granite and not particularly porous. I think you need to be particularly careful with porous items that may retain anything like bleach used to clean with. Very hot water alone will kill any algae I've encountered in my aquarium so far. Once dead it scrubs off pretty easily.
 
If you got a split timer you could limit the light period to 6-8 hours a day. Also try feeding a little less or do larger water changes.
 
Take a 5 gallon bucket. Place the items to be cleaned in the bucket. Cover them with warm water. Add some unscented chlorine bleach. (I usually use a couple of capfuls) I usually let it sit for about 10 to 15 minutes.

I usually take the same route but instead of bleach I use 70/30 water to H2O2 as the bleach word always makes me a bit jittery .. :p

It works pretty well if you let stuff soak for a few hours.
 
I usually take the same route but instead of bleach I use 70/30 water to H2O2 as the bleach word always makes me a bit jittery .. :p

It works pretty well if you let stuff soak for a few hours.

I've tried it and it doesn't clean my granite rocks as well as the bleach, but it certainly is safe and there is a lot to be said for that.

I'm not so jittery about chlorine bleach because the water out of my tap smells like a freaking swimming pool anyway. Prime is my best friend!
 
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