beach rock in tank?

[+KeeperOfTheZoo]

While at the beach I picked up a few hunks of neat porous rock, looks like 'live' rock (old coral skeleton) and probably was when I fished it out of the water. I've had it drying out for about a week now. Not real sure what to do with it. Can it be safely put in my tank, or is anything like that too polluted by the time it reaches the shore?

[Christian]

I would put it into a coratine tank for a wile. Just to see what come out of it an that way you don't have a large algae bloom.

[barderer]

depends on the beach.

[DaJMasta]

There's potential for it to leech stuff, there's potential for things to be alive/dead and decaying, and there's potential that it's simply got some pollutants on it from being on a beach....

If you're really looking to use it in your tank and aren't interested in whatever was/is alive on it now, I believe the standard is boiling it, then putting it in the sun to dry for a long while (a week or more). It doesn't prevent leeching (though soaking it and water testing could probably tell you if it was), but it gets the organics on the rock pretty well gone.

[Brooks]

You'd need to cure it before putting it into your tank... or at least, I would.

[Chrispar]

Id cook it just to be safe.

[+o0zarkawater]

I agree with the cooking it. After bringing that rock from Galveston back, and seeing all the living creatures on it, I would not want them in my DT. Even though you have dried it out, now all of those once living creatures are dead in all of the nooks and holes in the rocks. I personally would do a couple rounds of cooking/rinsing/drying. Just to make sure you don't add a bunch of decaying material to your tank.

[+KeeperOfTheZoo]

Ok, will cook the rocks and then rinse/soak/dry. They are small rocks, palm size. I wanted to eventually add them as rubble type rock in my fuge.

Do you still have the Galveston rocks in QT? How is that going? I'm hoping to hit the TX coast in the next couple months. I'm toying with the idea of a TX biotope tank with the 55g I'm gonna set up.

So, one last question.... How do I explain cooking rocks to my hubby?

[Zarathustra2]

I would be very wary of putting in found rocks into my tank. You do not know thye local pollution levels or the makeup of the rock. It could have heavy minerals, Iron, copper or other metals just as part of the rock. You will also run into an issue that because it is not calcium based it will have a unknown effect on the PH in your system.

Coming from Galveston it is certianly not reef rock (non calcium based.) The waters in the gulf are not known for being the cleanest and most pollutant free on earth so the rock would have picked up some pollutants almost assuradly.

If you are just in love with the rocks i would treat them like you do newly created arrogoncrete. Boil it first. Let it dry in the sun. Then soak it in fresh water for a month to 6 depending on how paranoid you are. Change the water every few days. If you use hose water then soak it in a strong anti-cloramine solution for a week.