Cleaning Coral Skeletons

[xxstarcr0ssed]

Hi All!

Looking for some help here. I started my first saltwater tank not too long ago. It's nothing crazy, just a false clown, a green chromis, and a brittle star.

Recently, I went on a trip to the florida keys. On Sombrero Beach there were a loootttt of neat little coral skeletons. I brought some home and decided to add them to my tank. They appear clean, but I wanted to know what methods were effective for sterilizing the coral skeletons. One piece of live rock I bought at my LFS was actually an old coral skeleton that became live and I think its one of the neater pieces of rock in my tank...so I figured adding smaller coral skeletons might give the tank a neat look. Any input would be greatly appreciated...and no I didn't harm any live corals Just picked up some skeletons that washed ashore.

 

[-Nemo-]

I would probably at least boil, preferably bleach, them to get rid of any bad things that may have found their way on there... If bleached, they should be soaked and rinsed very well as well as mixing in a dechlorinator.

 

[xxstarcr0ssed]

I would probably at least boil, preferably bleach, them to get rid of any bad things that may have found their way on there... If bleached, they should be soaked and rinsed very well as well as mixing in a dechlorinator.

Thanks! PS your reef tank looks off the hook!

 

[seffieuk]

Dead coral skeletons are the foundation of every living reef

Seffie x

 

[nkd5024]

I agree with Nemo, either boiling or bleaching.

Just a note on boiling though, scrub any algae or colored stuff off of the skeleton first.
I boiled a bunch of live rock that had algae on it and the green pigments in the algae dyed the rock green and its been cycling in a tank for 2 months now and its still green!
If you go the bleaching method, I would definitely let it sun dry, wash in water, sun dry, wash in water, sun dry, and wash in water with de-chlorinator.
I would be very worried to put the rock in a living reef myself, but I tend to worry about a lot of things.


You could probably just scrub it with a toothbrush and add it in without worrying, most of the live rock comes straight from the ocean as well!

Nick D.

 

[HappyGeorge]

As you would see on my Godiva reef journal my starting point was a large plate coral reef bone. To start with I just stuck it in some RO water to soak and after 2 weeks it stunk, there were lots of holes and crevasses in it so I took it outside and pressure washed it. Loads of stuff flooded out, I then left it to soak for another couple of weeks in salted RO and then I dumped it in with the LR complete with corals as soon as I got it. Never had a Nitrate reading so have to assume that even with all the nasty dead stuff in the rock it still had no effect on water quality. In your case I would soak them in RO pressure wash and then soak in salted as I did can't see that anything nasty is going to be left.