Cleaning Texas Holey Rock...questions...

[Gordinho80]

i soaked my holey rock in water with bleach for about 30mins to an hour...cant recall exactly how long...i did this in a 10 gal tank that i had lying around...mix was about 9 gal tap water, maybe 1 pint(16 oz) bleach...

i drained the bleach water and refilled tank with tap water...i put in a de-chlor...let that sit with a little power head pushing water around for about 30 mins, drained water again and refilled with fresh water...did this 1 more time...

i took the rocks out and noticed only a faint bleach smell...sat them outside in sun for 2 hours...was going to leave them out all day but looked like it might rain...so brought them in side...

i put them in a 5 gal bucket and ran water into the bucket and let it pour out for about 30 mins...

now i have the rocks back in the 10 gal tank with fresh water with de-chlor and an aqua clear 50 with only activated carbon in it...

how long should i let the rocks sit there or should i drain and refill again? when should i be able to put them back in the tank?

thanks...
Mario

 

[scalesojustice]

i boiled my rocks, some people actually bake theirs. i would probably do one or the other, just because of the exposure to bleach and the pourous nature of the rock.

i also let my rocks sit in a bucket for a week and then i did a water test to ensure that they wouldn't mess with water when put in the tank. just an idea as well.

 

[Gordinho80]

would boiling them "burn off" the chlorine? i need to get these back in the tank as soon as possible and still be safe for my fish...they have nothing to hide in now and cichlids dont like that too much...

 

[Sicklid]

Just go heavy on one more dose of de-chlorinator, followed by one more rinse to make you feel better. But it sounds like you have done it right. Bleach breaks down from a few things: sunlight, time, and especially chemical treatments... you have done them all, and you should be fine. And as far as I know, heating bleach does not burn it off and would just make fumes if that were the case. Many chemicals actually just get more potent with heat, about 20% increase (don't quote me) of whatever their "powers" are for every 10 degrees of temperature you heat them I believe, hence the bunsen burners in science labs.