Will running them under hot hot water be enough to kill of bacteria? Then scrub them down good, do the vinegar test, and run under hot water again? My mom doesn't like the idea of boiling rocks for some reason

LOL!


Why won't she let you boil them?

I'd of thought that some hot water and a good scrubbing should be sufficient, I'm sure ive put rocks in my tank without a decent clean before and they were fine.

well, when's the next time your mom will be gone for 30 minutes? the easiest way to sterilize rocks is still to boil them for about 15 minutes. just do it quickly and clean up after yourself and she'll never be the wiser.

the reason boiling things sterilizes them is that by bringing the temperature up to where water boils will cause the liquid portion of any cells to also boil and rupture in the organism, thereby killing it. a good scrubbing might do the trick, but you couldn't get water hot enough to kill bacteria and algae without damaging your hands if you tried to wash in it.

I am so not in favor of your doing this behind your mom's back. That's a great way to lose her trust and to cause more problems later with your fish keeping.

Your mom is probably viewing this as you taking one of her kitchen pans and filling it with dirt. Considering the cost of nice pots and pans, and the fact that so many of them are lined with a non-stick, yet scratchable, coating, I don't know if she's being completely unreasonable here. Here are a couple of alternatives:

- Ask if the problem is your using her good pans. If so, ask if you would be allowed to buy an inexpensive pot/pan from a Goodwill store or overstock store (I'm in the US -- don't know what's available in the UK) and use that for aquarium-related stuff. You should be able to get a cheap but decent sized pot from one of these for under $5. Problem solved.

- If the problem is that your mother is freaked out by rocks being boiled on her stove, ask if you can do this outside. You may have a barbecue with a burner on it that could be used. Or you could get an old metal pail, boil the water on the stove, then pour the boiling water on the rock. You will have to continue to add boiling water to keep the temperature up for the 10-15 minutes (you may be able to find a cheap candy thermometer for this purpose), and you will have to be very careful not to burn yourself while pouring water or by touching the very hot bucket. But I think you could achieve pretty much the same results this way.

- If there is some other random problem that your mom has with cleaning rocks, then explain -- note I didn't say complain -- about why you want the rocks. Do you need them to keep your cichlids happy? Do you just like the way they look? Tell her that this is much less expensive than buying rocks from the fish store and get an idea (in advance) of how much they would cost. Sometimes price makes a difference.

- If none of the above work, and assuming that your mom doesn't just have some moral objection to the existence of rocks , then either start saving your pennies to buy some pre-sterilized rocks from the LFS or ask for them as a birthday/Christmas/whateverday present from your parents. That might do the trick.

Good luck getting the rocks you want. I hope you do, but in the long run I don't think that rocks are worth breaking your parents' trust of you. Sneaking behind her back will do that in an instant.

Good luck,
Pamela

Does she have some old pans she wouldn't mine you using.

I'm definitely not going to do it behind her back. I can't imagine me using a stove either . I'm not sure why she doesn't want me to do it, but I'll beg haha

Can't you just put them in a plastic bucket and pour a couple of boiled kettle-fulls of water over them and leave it to soak outside for a while, that's what I did with mine, and never had any problems whatsoever.

I never thought of that! Yes I think I will do that. Thank you

Glad to be of assistance

You can also dump a bunch of aquarium salt over them when you dump the scalding water on them - that will help get rid of some of the nasties that may come in with them... right?

ok, ok... i forgot that some people actually own *nice* things to cook with... (i've only got $5 pots) :surrenders to the advice police:

adding salt is actually not that bad of an idea because the salt will raise the temperature at which the water boils--making the soak more effective. however, the idea isn't to just scald the rocks but thoroughly destroy any living organism on their surface. to make certain that is accomplished, the water temperature would have to be kept at or above 100C for an extended period of time (the rule of thumb being 15 minutes). boiling rocks is a very effective way of removing algae infestations (although it kinda smells funny). cabbage anyone?

Maybe get a cheap pot? Its just me but I would do it behind my moms back, if I knew I had enough time.

You can bleach rocks too

Yes, but its pretty risky, id do as phisphood said. My mum wont let me boil my bogwod, so i let it soak. But then i poored boiling water over it a couple of times. Goodluck...........*stupid mums* grumble grumble*

I definitely would not use bleach to clean anything that will ever go in an aquarium. The bleach can (will) leech itself into the porous surface of the rock (or gravel, or plastic, or wood, or shell, etc) and then later come out into your water. Definitely not a good idea.

I've used it on several ocasions, cleaning my filter when I first bought it used, my gravel in my ten gallon when cleaning out the tank and any rock tha's ever been in my tank, which is a lot, just remeber to rinse well and, let it dry for several days

well you can always say this:

it's funny 'cause it's true.

This post has been edited by pica_nuttalli: Mar 17 2005, 03:23 AM

tis...

and yeah..i'm not in favour of using a foreign substance such as bleach.....but if you absolutely have to, try to use some sort of biodegradable cleaning agent

i personally would go with the pouring boiling water over the rocks....can't gas pockets in a rock cause them to EXPLODE under enough heat? or is that only when baking rocks? maybe that is one of her concerns....also you should check out the post at http://www.fishforums.net/content/Tropical-Discussion/55806/http-www-fishforums-net-index-php-showtopic-55806/ if you are not sure if the rocks are safe for your aquarium