Jun 15, 2009
Posted by Freshwater Aquariums in FAQ | 9 Comments
How To Disinfect Rocks From The Backyard To Put Into Aquarium?
I found some pretty cool stones, and I want to use them in my cichlid aquarium. They're not porous, they're slabs of rock.
Right now I have them soaking in boiling water, and a high concentration of aquarium salt.
Will they be safe in my aquarium after this?
I expect the hot water and salt to kill any microorganisms that may hard my fish.
I just hate paying $30 for a dumb rock at the store. How do they prepare their rocks to be aquarium safe?
Well you should of poured vinegar on the stones, and if they fizz or bubble that means they are not safe for your aquarium.
Once you do the fizz test and the stone is safe then you can just boil it for a few minutes and it should be sterilized, then you should soak the rock in a bucket of old tank water, check the ph after a day, if it is any different from what your tank water is, then it is not safe.
Once you test the rock a few times and the ph is stable, then you can rinse it a few times and add it to your tank knowing that it is safe.
Dont get to worried about steralising rocks for a fish tank.
The first thing thats going to happen is algae and bacteria and all sorts of other micro-organisms are going to colonise it. They will fight it out with anything thats left living on the rock, and win.
A fish tank is not a sterile environment, and trying to make it one is both impossible and pointless.
Just give the rocks a good wash, scrub them down to remove dirt and other rubbish, and use them.
Secret info. The aquarium gravel comes from the same supplier as normal garden landscaping rocks. At my local aquarium supply wholesaler they have big bins of various coloured gravel sitting outside the wharehouse. They go out and shovel it into bags and send it to your local pet shop. There is nothing special or magic thats been done to it, it’s just rocks.
Ian
The best way to sterilize the rocks is make a solution of 1 cup of bleach to 5 gallon bucket filled with water. Allow the rocks to soak for an hour, then empty the bucket of the solution and fill it again with just plain water. allow the rocks to soak for 2 to 3 hours, until you take them out and you can’t smell bleach on them anymore. We did this at Petco and Petsmart to clean new ornaments and to get algea off of the dirty rocks. It Works great!!!!!! Just make sure that you can no longer smell bleach on the rocks before adding them to your aquarium.
Works for me. Be sure to wash/rinse the rocks thoroughly. Depending on where they came from, they could have chemical contaminants that boiling water won’t get rid of. Boiling will kill biotic problems but not chemical. If they came from a wild source such as a lake or stream then chemical contaminants shold not be a problem.
Well i understand where you come from with this and yes if you boil the rock in water it should be o.k. but some rocks are used not just for show but a bluffer for the water and also helps the p.h. levels this is something you need to look up when you are messing with cichlids. If you are new to this don’t do them.
Boiling them for a few minutes should do the trick. That’s what I’ve done in the past when using natural rocks for decoration in reptile cages and it worked just fine.
Yea! That’s what the aquarium people say you should do. I did the same thing for rocks that I wanted in my aquarium, and everything’s fine in there!
yup, that should be fine. and i know, seriously. $30 for a slab or two of plain rocks is dumb! :b
boil them