Habitat - Indoor :: Turt Dock

[Blue Flamingo]

I have a zoomed turt doc. How do you wash off alge. Its a weird styrofoam texture and i dont want to destroy it on accident. Also how can you prevent alge growth on the turt dock.

[Jessica313]

there isnt really any way to prevent it from growing... it happens naturally

what i use to get off the algae-- and its pretty effective--is scrub it with a toothbrush in hot water.. it works quite well for me

[reptilegrrl]

Why not leave the algae on?

[gammeragirl]

I use a toothbrush with a little clorox mixed in the water, then rinse thoroughly. I have had my Zoomed (large one) for about a year, and it got a small hole in it, (I think from scrubbing) and the insides of it was coming out like sawdust. Made a real mess, but my fluval 3 filter cleaned it up pretty well. But now I have to clean the tank again because of it. Grrr.

[Blue Flamingo]

Using a tooth brush sounds like a good idea. I was just using a sponge but it wasnt getting into all the little nooks and crannys.

[Jessica313]

yea i tried using a sponge before and it didnt really do much except for tear up the sponge

[missibsu]

I use a toothbrush, but it sometimes takes awhile. I have also used a larger scrub brush with like bristles and then used the toothbrush for fine tuning!

[~SweetJean~]

I know I'm a little late with a reply. What I do takes all the algae off. You want to spray the dock completly with a clorox kitchen spray and let it sit for about 10 min. Then scrub it with a wire sponge. I use the silver one that you are supposed to use on pots and pans. At first I thought I might damage the dock but nope, works well. Please don't forget to rinse well. Good Luck.

[steve]

I think most of would avoid using a strong cleaning agent (or any cleaning agent like me). I have always been able to remove algae with a toothbrush and some hard scrubbing. It's the safest way and it's good exercise

[reptilegrrl]

Yikes, I would never use clorox or a wire brush.

[marisa]

I once bought some corkbark at Petsmart and the instructions were, before using, to take off any loose pieces and soak it in diluted bleach for 15 minutes, rinse it very well, and let it air day. I decided to follow the directions and after the quick soak, rinsed numerous times and let it air dry (in the sun) for 24 hours. My turt never had a problem with it. I do leave the algae that forms on the edges now, though, it looks kind of nice.

[reptilegrrl]

Soaking in diluted bleach is pretty safe, but that person upthread was soaking it in undiluted clorox kitchen spray!

Back when I had a house full of herps I kept a bucket of diluted bleach in the kitchen to drop things into as I went through them. I changed it every day.

[marisa]

SweetJean said she was spraying the dock, not actually immersing the dock in a bucket of undiluted bleach. Wire bristles can range from relatively fine to quite coarse. I don't know what kind she was using, but if they didn't tear up the dock, I would think the bristles were on the soft side.

There's a relatively new spray out (by Clorox) that's kid and pet safe. I've been using it to disinfect areas where my turtles and their things have been.

[daredevilgirl013]

I just use a scotchbrite pad, those work wonders. Fill the bath tub up a bit with water and tahdah!! Good place to scrub the dock!

[reptilegrrl]

I just spray mine off with the hose when I need to clean it.