Cleaning rock?

[jobu28]

I have a FO tank with some dead corals and misc. rock. They are covered with brown algae/diatoms and looks unsightly. What is they best method to clean them. No CUC as tank was once treated with copper. Can i put them in a bucket with some bleach and them just rinse real well? Open to all suggestions.

 

[firestorm]

wirebrush and some elbow grease was recommended on here for clearing out hair algae - not sure if the bleach would cause to much die off and thus a new cycle - in that particular post he didn't mind a new cycle - and if all that's left in yours is rock and dead corals, i doubt you do either...if something (fish!) is still alive in the tank however, wait for someone who's been around awhile to log on - someone will come across this whose dealt with it before.
oh, and that gentleman also boiled the hell out of his
just search 'cleaning rock'

 

[jayking232003]

Get a toothbrush! If you can get your hands on a powerwasher,,, hook that up to your waterhose.
Put all your rock in a barrel or something to soak in freshwater,, shake it out, powerwash it, then go back over it with a toothbrush and shake it out again!
Be sure to widen the powerwashers stream, don't make it one forceful straight jet or your liable to split the rock or make a new hole! Its best if u have someone hold the rock with gloves while u powerwash it.
Also, don't get wise and go to the car wash! They run lots of chemicals through those hoses

 

[bizzmoneyb]

yup, get some hard brushes and scrub scrub scrub

 

[lil.guppy]

In the past I used a tooth brush for cleaning my rock

 

[pezenfuego]

I have a toothbrush with the word coraline on it...I used it for spreading the algae...now I just use it for cleaning the rocks.

 

[lil.guppy]

How do you use a tooth brush for coraline algae? I have to use my finger nail or a knife to get mine off!

What ever kind of tooth brush that is dont use it on your teeth

 

[pezenfuego]

Originally Posted by lil.guppy
http:///forum/post/3009411
How do you use a tooth brush for coraline algae? I have to use my finger nail or a knife to get mine off!

What ever kind of tooth brush that is dont use it on your teeth

I don't use it any more for that. I would scrub the coraline really well and this is supposed to stress it out so it will release spores and spread faster. Don't know if it really helped or not though...

 

[4clownfish]

What I do is,
Soak the rock in warm tap water for 2 hours
brush the rock with either a tooth brush or any kind of brush
empty the water and replace it with boiling water
let that soak for a day
replace water again and wait a day
It bleaches the rock with chlorine from tap water, also removes the algae and other living plants without removing the cabonates on the rock which will get there color back eventually.
also makes the rock very seedable and if another rock has algae, it will bloom like crazy so make sure you clean all of them.