Bleaching Decorations

[jhmuse]

Hello All,

I am in serious need of a total aquarium cleaning. I need to remove my rock from the tank and bleach it to kill all the green algae that has grown on it. Can anyone tell me the quickest yet safest way to clean/bleach rock. It is lava and other rock (not live rock). Thanks for all your help.

Jake

 

[jackdp]

I would recommend removing the rock and scrubbing it with a stiff bristle brush in some old saltwater to remove the algae. Even though you didn't buy it live rock, if its been in your tank for a period then its got nitrifying bacteria on it that you would kill by bleaching. Do you have any grazing herbivores that would eat the algae? Snails, hermits, emerald crabs all these will scour the rock eating green algae. If you insist on bleaching, soak the rock in a diluted bleach solution, scrub the rock and rinse it in fresh water until you can no longer smell bleach then rinse it some more and it should be good to go.

 

[kreach]

If you do decide to bleach, I also recommend using very hot water for your rinse... the heat helps break down the bleach.

 

[fishgeek]

In the past when I have had to bleach a saltwater decoration I always add Prime (declorinator) to the rinse water. It's an easy way to assure there is no trace of bleach left before returning item to tank. Just use a couple of capfuls to a small bucket of rinse water. Let the bleached items sit in the Prime water for about a half hour. You should not smell any bleach odor after the rinse. Hope this helps......

 

[BillyZ]

I agree with jackdp. your lava rock has likely become an important part of the filtration for your tank. If you yank it all out and bleach it you could end up causing a cycle. I would see what you could do about correcting the cause of the algae rather than trying to remove the algae. Your profile doesn't have any info about your tank, could you give us a little more info on your tank, lights and filtration? If you can remove the source of nutrients that are feeding the algae you can let the tank remove the algae on its own.

 

[jhmuse]

Thanks for the advice on the lava rock. I am going to try jackdp's idea of taking a toothbrush to it. I didn't realize that the lava rock would have beneficial bacteria in it.

I have a 46 gal. bowfront FO. I have a wet/dry filter and 2" of live sand for filtration. I just got a RO/DI filter and have started doing my water changes with that water. I am doing 5 gallons bi-weekly. Also, I have a Coralife 2X96w PC on a 10 hour cycle.

I think I may have been overfeeding, so I am only going to feed every other day.

Thanks....Jake