treating ocean rocks for an aquarium

[lurkershdw]

recently i went to the beach, and since it had been eroding, they dredged up a bunch of sand, and with that sand came a ton of old gray colored lava-type rocks. i've looked all over, but can't find anything aboutr treating them, so i put them in a 10% bleach solution for now. They're really cool rocks, and they're full of tunnels and arches. If anyone knows what i should do with them after the bleach i'd really appreciate it! tyg

 

[snapcrackler]

OOPS thought this was saltwater

 

[snapcrackler]

OK I am all starightened out now.. I was in shock because I thought this was the saltwater forum and that was... LIVE ROCK!!! *ack.. falls down*

Phew!!

Welcome to AA

I spose you could rinse super well with hot water and then let em sit in the sun.

If it were me I would wash them in the dishwasher several times (no soap!) and then let em sit in the sun. The dishwasher will provide the heat and rinsing to get that bleach outa there hopefully.

Hope this helps!

(It wasn't live rock was it? tell me it wasn't.. and it was some fresh/brackish inlet.. and not the beach... )

 

[lurkershdw]

no, it wasn't live rock, it was washed up on the beach, and completely bare (i don't think there's live rock off of the coast of North Carolina) thankyou

 

[poikilotherm]

One thing that is a problem with some rock types (primarily calcareous rock, limestone and marble) is their ability to affect pH and hardness. This should not be a problem with igneous rocks (primarily silicate), which it sounds like you have. Just to be sure, I'd do one of the following: a) put the rocks in a bucket of the water you use for water changes, check hardness and pH, then leave them for a week and check again; or b) put a drop of white vinegar or muriatic acid on the rock- if it fumes, you don't want it unless you are doing an african cichlid tank (rinse off any acid afterwards!).

Running them through the dishwasher is a good idea.

 

[lurkershdw]

i'll try that vinegar thing, and i'll also see about putting some pictures of them up

 

[lurkershdw]

nothing happened when i put the vinegar on one of them, it only made some bubbles that were so small that you had to get really close to see. i took some pictures, and i'll post them later

 

[krap101]

i found some rocks on the coast of that lake (the one by chicago) and i was wondering the same thing. is the vinegar theonly thing you have to check?

 

[poikilotherm]

Vinegar is pretty much it unless you have a mass spectrometer handy! It sounds like the little fizz you had was not a "positive" reaction to the test, so you should be OK.

Seriously, I'd go ahead and put the rocks in your tank once you're convinced that they're cleaned/sterilized enough. I would just monitor the hardness and pH of your water a little more closely for the first month or two.

I wish I had pretty rocks.

 

[Menagerie]

poikilotherm, you can have other things in the tank, like wheat and dust and a Patty's burrito (oh--must be lunch time ).

lurkershdw, what fish are you keeping? Will they make ue of the holes?

 

[Orca]

If the vinegar bubbled, even a little bit, I have to think that's not a good sign. I would have expected the vinegar to have no reaction at all in order to consider the rocks safe. I'll bet that if vinegar bubbles a little, then muriatic acid would bubble a LOT!

If you don't want to do the bucket test for a week or more, then I'd definitely watch the tank's PH and hardness extra closely.

Hope it all works out.

 

[lurkershdw]

in my ten gallon i have platies, and in my 20 gallon i have 3 fantail goldfish, my plan is to get a 40 gallon or so from a yard sale, put my goldish in there, and then make my 10gallon a nursery tanks for my platies

 

[shawmutt]

One thing that is bad about unfamiliar rocks is that they might leech toxicity into the water. What you can do is set up a QT tank with the rocks , let them sit for a week or so, and then seed the QT tank to quickly cycle it. Add a couple feeder fish in there (I read about this in my fish mag, so don't flame me! , IMO better a few .50 feeder fish than more expensive fish) and watch them to see how they react.