Habitat - Indoor :: Putting stones from outside in the tank

[DanM]

Greetings,

I have a stone from the woods behind my house that I'd like to put in the tank with my RES's. I washed it off and boiled it for a couple of hours but there's still some green "algae" type material on it that definitely doesn't want to come off. If it's been boiled and whatnot, would it hurt them to include it anyways?

Also, how long is typical for boiling stones, anyways? Thanks ahead of time!

[rturtle1]

as long as you boiled them than they should not harm the turtle. try useing peroxide or rubing alcohol with a tooth brush

[Chrisbarnett]

I think it should be fine. As long as it's been boiled.

[octpusgirl8]

If it's been boiled it should be fine, but if there's gunk on it i would try to scrub it off just to be safe. When i boil things i usually do it for about 15 minutes, not sure what's the official right amount of time.

[BullDog]

I boiled the rocks I put in my tank for about 10 minutes.
Did you try scrubbing the green stuff off? Maybe it's just the colouration of the rock.

[grey goose]

You should really use only smooth non-porous stones. Algae and other kinds of bacteria can get embedded and be difficult to remove.

[TriniTurtledude]

once it has been boiled it should be fine. scrubbing can be a good attempt but DONT use any chemicals at all.

[marisa]

Are you sure the green is algae?

I have both rocks I bought and rocks I found outside in the tanks. The rocks I bought were rinsed well before putting them in the tank. The ones I found outside were scubbed with white vinegar and boiled before adding them to the tank.

[shellie0474]

I will be switching to a stock tank soon and have a few large rocks from outside that I would like to use. They are to big to boil on the stove. What else can I do to make sure they are clean. I have scrub them with a toothbrush and dish soap and rinsed them really well. There is no mud, dirt or algae of any kind on them.

[BullDog]

As long as you're 100% sure all the soap is off, then that should be fine.
I would recommend vinegar over dish soap next time though.
I just found out that straight vinegar kills 80-99% of bacteria

[blulite]

my tumble has 2 house bricks and a rock from outside to use as his basking area. before i put them in the tank i put them in a sink full of boiling water and bleach then scrubbed them thoroughly with a nail brush. once all the scrubbing was done i emptied the sink and filled it back up with hot water and vinegar to nutralize the bleach then scrubbed them again. then after the second empty i ran them under fast flowing hot water from the tap for 10-15 mins to remove vinegar residue. vinegar isnt really harmful to turts. now tumble has a nice basking spot and the water in his house is perfectly clear

edit: just noticed the post above and the mention of vinegar. yes vinegar does kill 80 - 99% of germs but domestos does deffinatley kill 99% so usind bleach befoer the vinegar as i did should give you a more thorough clean

[PcBuilder14]

Haha! All I did was get rocks from our driveway and powerwash them with a water hose! Probably wasn't the cleanest way!

But apparently it didn't hurt him because that was months ago.

[Fuzzy Hamster]

We built a basking area from rocks gathered near a house construction site. It is important to note that some rocks may not be suitable for tank use due to the composition of the rock.

We sanitized our rocks using the tank cleaning bleach solution mentioned here ( http://www.redearslider.com/tank_considerations.html ) and then soaked them in vinegar, followed by a thorough water rinse and air dry.

If any of the rocks 'fizz' when in the vinegar (fizz like alka-seltzer, not just air bubbles) then do not use them as they will continue to dissolve in your tank and can affect the water hardness & pH.

[imderanged]

I use vinegar to clean anything that goes in my tank.