cararosalie

I have a fish-only saltwater tank, decorated with various stones and coral. While I was away for the weekend, my new roommate (with good intentions) put all of my decorations in the dishwasher to clean them. He didn't use detergent, thank goodness.

Could this be a major problem, with the possibility of chemicals entering the rock pores? And... Do you think this will throw off my tank levels (now that my rocks and coral are sparkling white)-- I think I may be missing some crucial bacteria. I hope that my tank has not lost so much bacteria that it re-cycles.

Should I hold off on a water change for another week to make sure there is enough bacteria in the tank?

I'm not sure if I should wait to see how my fish react to this or go ahead and do something about it before something happens that I cannot fix.

Any recommendations?

Has anyone ever heard of putting rocks in the dishwasher? The idea seems quite absurd to me. I always scrubbed them with a toothbrush.

unclejed

When I had a fish only with dead decorative corals and rock I used to take everything out when I did my water change (monthly) and soak all the coral and rock in buckets with about 1/2 cup of bleach. Sounds crazy maybe but a Lfs guy told me about it and I did it for years. You just have to make sure after letting it soak for an hour or so you thoroughly rinse it. I would put the garden hose in the bucket and let it run for 10 min. Never had any ill effects. If you are concerned about some residual soap or chems I would do that or just put everything in laundry tub and run hot water over it.

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"Mankind, by Divine design, is the most intelligent animal on the planet, for this reason we are capable of the most atrocious blunders"

las4444

I agree with unclejed. Let them soak and rinse them off and you will be fine.
I use bleach also to clean some things also. Just take care in rinsing.

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Tank: 75 Gallon Reef, 20 gallon wet/dry, Quiet1One 4000 pump, 250 watt heater, Milwaukee PH monitor, Coralife 125 skimmer, Coralife 260 watt light.

Fish: Golden Wrasse, Sailfin Tang, Convict Gobbie, Tomato Clown, and Foxface Rabbit, CCStar, BTA, Colt coral and a cleanup crew including a camel shrimp.

orb4me

Cara, Ive had that kind of help too. lol Sometimes its really hard to smile and say Thank You.

Thanks for asking your question on Fishtankforums, I have been looking at different threads etc about cleaning shells, etc for saltwater tanks, I wasnt sure, and found the answer right here as usual.

We need "Do not disturb" signs for tanks.

My adult daughter put a heart shaped rock in my freshwater tank, that I didnt see right away and nitrates jumped sky high. I placed the rock on top of the aquarium and called it a decoration.

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cararosalie

Ah, good! Thanks for the replies. I was pretty concerned.

I'm still keeping an eye on all of my levels. I thought that maybe with the super-clean rocks, my tank would be without the necessary bacteria. But everything seems to be fine, so far.

I've heard about cleaning with bleach, but I'd be afraid that all of the chemical wasn't rinsed entirely from the pores. I've only had the tank for 1.5 years. I'm new, and therefore have already lost a handful of fish. So I've been really particular to make sure this group of fish lasts a while.

Yes-- a Do Not Disturb sign would be fanastic. I had asked him to do me a favor and feed the fish while I'm away on weekends. I think that's what started it. I went out and bought an automatic food dispenser, so now there is no reason for my roommate to even touch the tank. I figured I'd just cut it off at the source!