The Puffer Forum

I'm slowly trying to rescape my tank and was going to put in some additional gravel. I have a bucket of gravel from a previous tank that has been outside for a loooong time. It has dirt and junk and probably a bit of algae and I'm sure some other things mixed in. I was planning to rinse it and then boil it to disinfect and clean it. WIll that be sufficient? Any thoughts?

Rinse well with hot water. Drain & fill up with water & add a cup of Oxyclean. Stir well. Rinse well with warm water.

Pufferpunk wrote:Rinse well with hot water. Drain & fill up with water & add a cup of Oxyclean. Stir well. Rinse well with warm water.

Good advice. I always use bleach for disinfecting, gotta be sure to rinse super well though.

Very difficult to get ALL bleach out of gravel--very toxic. Oxyclean isn't toxic at all.

Pufferpunk wrote:Very difficult to get ALL bleach out of gravel--very toxic. Oxyclean isn't toxic at all.

Yeah, that's why I think your advice for this is better. I definitely wouldn't trust I had got all the bleach out of gravel.

Thanks for the info. I boiled, rinsed, rinsed some more. It's not going in that soon so I think I'll grab some oxyclean.

If you boiled, it's probably fine then. Trying to save you that trouble.

Pufferpunk wrote:If you boiled, it's probably fine then. Trying to save you that trouble.

Cool, thanks. Beyond the gravel is oxy clean good to use on other equipment? I've always done the 20:1 bleach solution then soaked it in a bucket overdosed with Prime. But if Oxyclean is safer maybe I'll start going that route.

Oxyclean. Light rinsing & you're done.

That's really useful to know, thanks pp.