Vallisneria Posted November 5, 2005 Report Share Posted November 5, 2005 OK, i'm tearing down one of my tanks that is infested with blue green algae. I need to clean the rocks to make sure i don't transfer any of the badness to my new tank. I was planning on cleaning them with bleach but my dad bought the wrong kind. He bought Javex with fiberguard. It doesn't say the ingredients but im' pretty sure "fiberguard" isn't safe for fish. So how else can i go about sterilizing my rocks? Would ammonia work? I have a half bottle of that left over from fishless cycling. Or do you think this "fiber guard" bleach is safe to use if i make sure i rinse enough? Or will hot water out of the tap be hot enough to kill the algae? I know if i boil them it would do it but i'd rather not have to do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FishBrain Posted November 5, 2005 Report Share Posted November 5, 2005 So far I've had good luck washing with a good SALT mix with hot water seems to kill just about everything Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted November 5, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2005 Do you think that salt will be enought o kill the blue green algae? I really dont' want to have to deal with it again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyL Posted November 5, 2005 Report Share Posted November 5, 2005 Blue green algae? Well, it's a cyanobacteria, treated easily with erythromyacin or longish term blackouts. Even sterilizing everything, you're not going to eliminate the problem, BGA bacteria is in the air, our drinking water, everywhere. Simply cleaning out the tank won't make it go away. You've got to treat the root cause of the outbreak (often caused by poor flow, high nitrates - and I still believe high silicates) Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted November 5, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2005 Yeah, i know. I tried solving the Blue green algae issues. But thats not really my issue anymore. I am tearing down the infected 15g and using the rocks in another tank. So i need to clean the rocks to make sure i don't bring any stuff with them. So far i've been soaking them in really hot water and i added a bunch of salt. ALl the BG algae is gone( it scrubbed off easily) but the rocks are stained greenish. Is that ok or does it mean that there is still some algae left on them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted November 6, 2005 Report Share Posted November 6, 2005 IME, you can't really 'get rid' of BGA - like Andy said, it's everywhere. However, from what I've learned through the school of hard knocks is that if you let it dry out, it usually kills what algae is alive :guns: (I know, cyanobacteria are a bit of a different story). But, if you keep good housekeeping (or tank-keeping, I guess) practices, you won't really have the problem again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted November 6, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 6, 2005 This tank got BG algae because it was neglected. I haven't had BG algae in any of my tanks ever before this one. So i'm hoping that if i clean these rocks and start over my BG algae problems will be finished. I know that algae is everywhere but why give it a bigger chance by not sterilizing the rocks. Anyhoo, I washed them all yesterday and they are looking clean. So today i setup my new tank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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