Cleaning rocks & wood

[Beesboer]

Is there a specific way to clean wood & rocks to put in a tank? And how many gravel is enough? (260L tank)

 

[kevy]

Gravel I'm not sure about, but I can explain to you how I clean rocks/wood. Mind you I clean them and put them into a tank that won't have fish for another week or two, so there is probably a better way.

First I fill my bathtub with warm water, and scrub for a while. A long while, so I cover every inch square inch ten times over. Then I boil it for a while. This seems more important with wood, and it brings out that chemical (I forget the name...something with a t) that turns the water to an amber color, so it doesn't change the color of your tank's water. Then scrub it again, a lot. That is all I do for rocks, but for wood, I try to leave it in a bucket of water for a week or so. Then every couple days I take it out and scrub it. You should probably keep the bucket inside though.


Please correct me if I've been doing this wrong though.

 

[Liz05]

I'm not sure how many gallons is 260L. Just add gravel to where you think it looks right. Probably an inch or 2 will be enough, just do whatever you think looks nice!

 

[AquaNut]

30 kg of gravel should be enough.

As has been mentioned, it's important to boil or bake anything you put into your tank to kill any living organisms on it. This is a lot more important than 'scrubbing', imho. Also, take some vinegar (a very simple acid) and pour it on the rocks. If there's any fizzing, it means the rocks are soluble and can dissolve into your water over time, releasing undesirable minerals. Make sure you rinse the vinegar off well! With wood, as has been mentioned, unless it's submerged when you find it, you need to 'waterlog' it, or soak it until it sinks. Change the water a couple of times a day while you're soaking it, and you should get rid of most of the tannic acid. Tannins aren't necessarily bad in small quantities (sometimes sold as Blackwater Extract for soft water loving fishes), but unless you're experienced with altering water chemistry in this way, it's best to make sure the soaking water is clear before adding the wood to your tank.