Cleaning Rocks

[Beehpee]

Hi All, I have a cichlid tank that is doing really well, I'm really pleased I switched to cichlids probably a couple of months ago and while the fish seem to be thriving I do have one small niggle, I have coral rocks in the tank and when new they were a bright white colour and gave me a display I was really pleased with, as well as my routine water changes every couple of weeks, I've removed the rocks twice now to give them a good clean with a jet wash, while this brings them up pretty well they have never been as bright a white as when new, so if when I do it next I were to soak them in a bleach and water solution I reckon this could restore them to as new condition, if I did what sort of dilution would I be safe using, obviously the stronger the solution the cleaner they will come but then I wonder how much rinsing I'd need to do before they were safe to re use in the tank, I'm thinking maybe the only really safe option would be to buy a new selection of rocks then I could have one lot in the tank and the other lot I could bleach then leave them soaking for a couple of weeks or more and then do the same in reverse the next time, it would save me a chunk of cash if I could just rinse a re use but the tank is doing so well I'm nervous of upsetting the water parameters, so anyone any opinions?

BP

 

[jimmyfalcon]

I do not think its a good idea of bleaching them. maybe soaking them in boiling water?

 

[Coryluv]

I have not washed rocks with bleach. My aquarium has been set up for nearly a year and I've never washed my rocks. They do have some algae, but I want it for the algae eating critters in my tank.

For the other non-porous items I've washed with bleach, like a filter outflow with some algae that I couldn't scrub off, I soaked it in a weak bleach solution. That killed the algae and allowed me to scrub it off without damaging the plastic. I've done that with other items of tank decor in the past. What I do when I'm done is rinse the items very well in plain tap water. After that I make sure I soak the items in some Prime mixed in water in a bucket. I always do a sniff test to make sure I can't smell any chlorine before returning the item to the tank. I also add a normal dose of Prime to the tank (I do this cleaning during a water change, anyway). That should take care of any chorine that might accidentally still be on something. Just be careful, rinse well and Prime, and you should be fine.

 

[Luananeko]

Unfortunately decorations just naturally become less bright over time due to biofilm accumulation. This biofilm serves a lot of beneficial functions, so removing it via bleach or boiling may not be the best idea... A better route might be to try to manage the biofilm so that it's not turning the rocks brown, but is also not non-existant. If you add snails then they'll tend to keep the biofilm layer thin enough for the rocks to still be white, just not necessarily a BRIGHT white.