Does Anyone Know How To Clean Base Rock?

[tragikmagik]

I have some BR that has been in salt fora long time and then got rinsed and given to a buddy and put in a brackish tank..He neglected cleaning the tank and to make a long story short i have a bunch of good BR that is half green half white...is there a way that i can clean these and then put them back into SW clean? I have much more rock than this but this will prove my point I am putting some links on here for pics of what im talking about i hope they work...any input would be great.

http/i25.photobucket.com/albums/c66/trag...72/890265de.jpg ---Dirty Side


http/i25.photobucket.com/albums/c66/trag...72/bacdd6b1.jpg ---Clean side

 

[FishOwner]

Hard to believe they're the same pieces of rock!


That dirty side is really, really dirty! Well, if it was me, I would go ahead and soak them in some bleach water. Soak them until the gunk start loosening up. Then a good rinse, and another soak, this time in water that has extra dechlorinator in it (to neutralize the bleach). Then another good rinse and perhaps a brushing with an old toothbrush followed by another rinsing.
If that fails, try setting the rocks in the sun (dirty side up) for a few days. The sun can do a decent job of bleaching and killing anything holding/binding onto the rocks. Of course you will have to scrub the rock and rinse afterwards....

 

[SkiFletch]

Umm, I'd start with vinegar and a steel brush before I went straight for bleach. You dont necessarily HAVE to clean them if you aquascape the tank so the clean side is up

 

[crazyelece]

presure washer! Best way to clean any rock or stone for any aquarium. Blast them, let them dry, then stick them in the tank.

 

[SkiFletch]

presure washer! Best way to clean any rock or stone for any aquarium. Blast them, let them dry, then stick them in the tank.

Good call

 

[tragikmagik]

yeah good call on the presssure washer.... what do you think would be harder to rinse out vingar or bleach? if the pressure washer dont get it.

 

[SkiFletch]

bleach is harder to eliminate. They're both acids... bleach has a very low pH, on the order of about 2-3 while vinegar is a mild acid at a pH of around 5. Diluting a pH of 5 is much easier than one of 2-3 . Also, the vinegar has no chemical additives or surfactants thus making it safer in the long run. Only use bleach as a LAST resort and rins it THOROUGHLY. the bleach will eat away the surface of the rock pretty quick as strong acids gobble up calcium salts. when rinsing something soaked in bleach, the process should take days, not hours

 

[TragikMagik72]

OK tried the pressure washer idea and that did not go over so well so now im going to go with vinigar...hope that will do the trick....im going to try to soak them for a while and then pressure wash them again or start scrubbin....Yeah i dont really want to use bleach, especially if its so much harder to rinse...granted i know the vinigar wont be a simple but it wont take days will it? with soaks and dries and pressure washes in clean water?

 

[SkiFletch]

Vinegar wont take days, but at least a good 4 soaks in water for around an hour each. you could also try some kitchen scrubbing pads if the brushes dont work... Just make sure they dont have any soaps or surfactants in them.

 

[TragikMagik72]

Well the vinigar did an alright job....you were right it went right after that calcium...blubbles and fizzin away my rocks...lol I took a big scrub brush and cleaned them up the best i could i have soaked and drained and soaked and drained many many times....can i just check the acidity level in the rinse bucket to see if i got it all out? And if i dont get it all out before i put it into my tank will that be really bad? i get some pics on here of how well it did as soon as I get home...I cleaned them at work for free! I work for a hospital so we have everything i needed.... but i still might to to sun bleach some maybe not...

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah, put it in a bucket, wait an hour or so and test the pH. If its 7 or higher you'll be fine to drop it in.

 

[tragikmagik]

awsome thanks much