Disinfecting sand

kerncake233 said:

Got the SDS sheet from the manufacturer. Sodium Hypochlorite and water. That’s it for ingredients. I’m going for it. Soaking in plastic garbage can for couple days. Just rinse the rocks thoroughly and dechlorinate well?

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Sounds good

Colin_T said:

Sounds good

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So there’s a white filmy substance on some of the rocks and in the garbage can after taking the rocks out to rinse. Some of it wipes off on my hand and sorta just dissolves in my fingers. Is that the bleach breaking down out of water? Quite a few of the rocks are bleached white and lost color on one side or the other. Keep rinsing?

Any ideas? Never bleached anything before so this is all new to me. Am I stuck with white rocks now? I’ll just buy new if that’s the case, but sure was a lotta work taking this all down and bleaching for white rocks lol

kerncake233 said:

Any ideas? Never bleached anything before so this is all new to me. Am I stuck with white rocks now? I’ll just buy new if that’s the case, but sure was a lotta work taking this all down and bleaching for white rocks lol

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No clue. You may have to buy new. How long did you soak in the bleach for? I've never heard of them losing color

JuiceBox52 said:

No clue. You may have to buy new. How long did you soak in the bleach for? I've never heard of them losing color

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Bout 24 hours in 1:10 solution. Some were covered in old algae pretty heavy so kinda thought the bleach maybe stained that? I don’t know. The flatter more non porous rocks have the more powdery white substance that kinda rubs off, though some doesn’t rub off. A lot of the porous ones are just straight turned white. A few had no color change at all..

kerncake233 said:

Bout 24 hours in 1:10 solution. Some were covered in old algae pretty heavy so kinda thought the bleach maybe stained that? I don’t know. The flatter more non porous rocks have the more powdery white substance that kinda rubs off, though some doesn’t rub off. A lot of the porous ones are just straight turned white. A few had no color change at all..

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Huh. Weird. Maybe it stained something on the surface of the rocks like the algae you mentioned. Have you tried scrubbing them?

JuiceBox52 said:

Huh. Weird. Maybe it stained something on the surface of the rocks like the algae you mentioned. Have you tried scrubbing them?

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That was my next step for the ones that aren’t completely stained. Otherwise oh well I’ll buy some new.

kerncake233 said:

That was my next step for the ones that aren’t completely stained. Otherwise oh well I’ll buy some new.

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Just curious, could I see a pic of the ones that are only partially stained? Lol no reason really

That white powdery stuff on the garbage can rubs right off. Assuming that’s the bleach dried out. Just hope that comes off the rocks. Some have it bad, some not at all.

Not sure if they loaded..

kerncake233 said:

Not sure if they loaded..

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Oh yeah. That's weird. Hope it comes off!

The powdery stuff is on my plant leaves as well after their bleach soak. It wipes off, but takes a bit of scrubbing. Assuming this must be the bleach broken down into salt form? Does anyone know for sure, is the bleach neutral in this form? If not there’s too much of it on everything to risk it so I’ll toss it all. Someone has had to have experienced this.

The white stuff on the rocks and plants is probably dead algae and dead biofilm (bacteria and other microscopic stuff that was on the rocks). It should come off with a garden hose (spray it down).

The rocks themselves should not have changed colour just from being bleached in a mild bleach solution.

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Dry bleach residue is poisonous to fish and needs to be washed off. When it no longer feels gritty or slimy and no longer smells like bleach, it should be fine.

Just rinse and soak the items in fresh water for a few days and leave it in the sun for a day after that. The rinsing and soaking will dilute any bleach and the sunlight will get rid of the last traces of it.

You can also add a double or triple dose of dechlorinator to the containers of water to help neutralise any chlorine in it.

Colin_T said:

The white stuff on the rocks and plants is probably dead algae and dead biofilm (bacteria and other microscopic stuff that was on the rocks). It should come off with a garden hose (spray it down).

The rocks themselves should not have changed colour just from being bleached in a mild bleach solution.

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Dry bleach residue is poisonous to fish and needs to be washed off. When it no longer feels gritty or slimy and no longer smells like bleach, it should be fine.

Just rinse and soak the items in fresh water for a few days and leave it in the sun for a day after that. The rinsing and soaking will dilute any bleach and the sunlight will get rid of the last traces of it.

You can also add a double or triple dose of dechlorinator to the containers of water to help neutralise any chlorine in it.

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The plants have already been soaking in fresh dechlorinated water for a good day and that residue just won’t come off completely. I’ll prolly toss em and the rocks that I can’t get clean. Lotta work just to throw em but after all this work to sanitize everything (prolly spent 14 hours over 2 days on it), there’s no way I’m putting anything in my tank that isn’t 100% fresh and clean.

Hey guys, this is mostly for Colin but feel free to chime in anyone. I baked the sand in the oven to ensure it was all clean and free of the disease. Prior to doing that however, I had given my tank a thorough saltwater bath with a very large amount of salt. The salt was so thick that it couldn't dissolve any more. Now I'm having a difficult time getting the salt to dissolve out of the sand bed after filling and draining the tank over and over. I've probably filled it and drained it about 5 times stirring the sand thoroughly each time attempting to get all the salt out. I drained the tank as low as I can just to the sandbed, and the remaining water still has a strong salt taste. Just wondering how many more times I should have to fill and drain her to get the salt out. Or, can I just set it up now as is and my fish would be fine? Gonna be adding mbunas again once she's up and running.