-
Folks, if you've recently upgraded or renewed your annual club membership but it's still not active, please reach out to the BOD or a moderator. The PayPal system has a slight bug which it doesn't allow it to activate the account on it's own.
Cleaning off Rocks Help
- Thread starter Ryan88
- Start date
But if you boil or bake them you are going to kill off everything and then you end up with dead rock.
I think the goal is to keep the rock "live" but remove the algae so the rock doesnt need to to be completely nuked and start over.
I think the goal is to keep the rock "live" but remove the algae so the rock doesnt need to to be completely nuked and start over.
If that is the case the best you can do is scrub them with a brush. I used a tooth brush for small crevices and a larger one for the rock itself. I did this for a rock with hair algae. Very slow and messy; also did it outside. I had two buckets, one empty and one with some tank water. I scrubbed the rock and rinsed it. I did this until I couldn't get any more off. My tang took care of what was left, which wasn't much.
Save water from your water changes and use it when you rinse and scrub. Don't use tapwater.
If you have some time between taking them out and putting them into the new tank,like days or weeks, put them in a dark container with a powerhead and a heater. then take them out and rinse and scrub again.
If you have some time between taking them out and putting them into the new tank,like days or weeks, put them in a dark container with a powerhead and a heater. then take them out and rinse and scrub again.
you either have to cook the rock or let it sit in the dark for an extended period of time. Cooking it will definitely get rid of the algae. Keeping it in the dark will most likely get rid of it. As for keeping it live. you can reseed the rock with some live sand. I've done it and never had any issues. Good luck with whatever you choose
Harry
Harry
I'm sure that putting it in the dark for a year will work well... but for a quicker result do what MAVL666 posted.
I had a really bad outbreak and I ended up taking 4 - 5g buckets of water out of the tank and scrubbed the heck out of the rocks with a medium and soft tooth brush. Each rock hit each bucket of water.
1st bucket = largest portion of gunk came off
2nd bucket = gunk that I couldn't see since the 1st bucket was black
3rd bucket = final layer of gunk
4th bucket = final rinse
5th dunk = tank
The 1st bucket water was grey after the first rock and just about jet back after the 2nd.
So far, about 6 months have past and it's looking pretty good. Only the "new" rocks I added from others tanks appear to be having algae issues. The original scrubbed rocks have something on them now that doesn't look great, but I am pretty sure that it's brown/gold coraline. That stuff seems to overpower purple and other pretty colors. I even have white. Better than algae though!
I had a really bad outbreak and I ended up taking 4 - 5g buckets of water out of the tank and scrubbed the heck out of the rocks with a medium and soft tooth brush. Each rock hit each bucket of water.
1st bucket = largest portion of gunk came off
2nd bucket = gunk that I couldn't see since the 1st bucket was black
3rd bucket = final layer of gunk
4th bucket = final rinse
5th dunk = tank
The 1st bucket water was grey after the first rock and just about jet back after the 2nd.
So far, about 6 months have past and it's looking pretty good. Only the "new" rocks I added from others tanks appear to be having algae issues. The original scrubbed rocks have something on them now that doesn't look great, but I am pretty sure that it's brown/gold coraline. That stuff seems to overpower purple and other pretty colors. I even have white. Better than algae though!