Question on cleaning "dead" rock

[TekCat]

I have a question on cleaning "dead" rock. I picked up some rock and dead
coral skeletons off of a beach in Hawaii it has some dead stuff encrusted,
probably some organic material inside its pores, dirt, along with god knows
what. What do I need to do in order to prepare it for placement in the tank?
Any chemicals I could use to clean it? Right now it is "chilling" in the
bucket of tap water.
Please Advise

[Pszemol]

I would just clean it with a fish-tank-dedicated brush
and running tap water. No chemicals. Brush it clean
and you could put it in the water just to speed up the
potential decomposing process of what has left in the pores.
The nature will do the rest... You could test the water
where the rock is against ammonia to see if it is safe.

If you really want it "sterilized" and discollored white
you could use concentrated chlorine solution, but then
you need to get rid of chlorine residue before you put
it in the tank. But I would not do it...

I brought some dead rock from Hawai but it was already
bleached on the beach - Sun, water and wind activity :-)
In my case it was enough to wash it in running water
and I saw relatively clean bare bone coral skeleton.
I put it in the quarantine tank and after a week tested
the water and it was fine, so I put the rock in the tank.

[Cindy]

TekCat wrote:
> I have a question on cleaning "dead" rock. I picked up some rock and
> dead coral skeletons off of a beach in Hawaii it has some dead stuff
> encrusted, probably some organic material inside its pores, dirt,
> along with god knows what. What do I need to do in order to prepare
> it for placement in the tank? Any chemicals I could use to clean it? Right
> now it is "chilling" in the bucket of tap water.
> Please Advise

Boil it.

[Cindy]

Pszemol wrote:
> I would just clean it with a fish-tank-dedicated brush
> and running tap water. No chemicals. Brush it clean
> and you could put it in the water just to speed up the
> potential decomposing process of what has left in the pores.
> The nature will do the rest... You could test the water
> where the rock is against ammonia to see if it is safe.
>
> If you really want it "sterilized" and discollored white
> you could use concentrated chlorine solution, but then
> you need to get rid of chlorine residue before you put
> it in the tank. But I would not do it...

You can bleach it in a 10 to 1 water/bleach mix, then rinse VERY well in
running water, THEN use a dechlorinator with an airstone to make sure you
get the bleach out of whatever holes there are. I used to do it regularly.

[rtk]

I've taken seriously scruffy, fuzzy, greenish, blackish, tufa rock from
a cichlid tank, left it in the rain and sun and freezing temperatures
until it looked pristinely pale again. Then, just to be on the safe
side, I boiled it, then braised it in a bit of water in a 500 degree
oven for an hour. After a couple weeks in the sal****er tank, genuine
gha has taken root on it, not exactly a thrill, but proof it's accepted
by its new environment.

Off topic, sorta: I just saw the new wing at the aquarium in Dallas and
next month I'll be visiting the new Atlanta aquarium. Has anyone already
been there?

rtk