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I aquired a dry hunk of lace rock the other day and realized when I got it home it had been used in a saltwater tank. I plan to put it in the tank for the current plecs and hypothethical synos soon.

I am soaking the rock and changning water daily, but how can I tell if enuff salt has been removed? As long as the rock tastes salty, I keep soaking. Also, there is considerable blotchy greenish grey growth on the rock which I assume to be some sort of salt algae. Will this hurt my cats?

troi

Youre eating the rock yourself?, why are you doing that?
anyway, if you soak in Boiling water for a few hours, that usually does the trick

Could it be a piece of reef rock or calcium carbonate?

pictus_man_77 wrote:Youre eating the rock yourself?, why are you doing that? anyway, if you soak in Boiling water for a few hours, that usually does the trick

It is the local diet. One too many weeks of beef and potatos and I sorta went around the bend and started to diet. We all know where that leads one and what kind of weird behavior follows.

I think the rock is too big to put in a boiling pan but will switch to the hottest water I can find.

troi

I think just using water will be fine, salt dissolves pretty well in water, up to about 4 percent (which is VERY salty). But it's a case of removing it by solution, which means that you need lots of water, because you need a difference between the water and the rock content of salt. So changing the water (or even better, a bucket with the tap runing slowly, perhaps with an air-stone or something to circulate the water).

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Mats

MatsP wrote:(or even better, a bucket with the tap runing slowly, perhaps with an air-stone or something to circulate the water).Mats

Water too precious and expensive in the desert it keep running, so I will try the air and more frequent changes.

Any thoughts on the probably salt algae and the little sprial things that look like tiny snail shells all over the underside of the rock? Assuming they are harmless, but we all know aobut assumming.

troi

How big of a tank is it going into?

I can't see much problem with a little salt leaching into your aquarium water unless
your putting the rock into a smaller tank. My preference would be to boil the rock
or pour boiling water into the container your soaking it in just to be safe.

If the rock was dry when you got it, the algae will probably be dead.

Even if it's alive, it'll probably not live well in freshwater.

I don't see it as a problem, but I have no experience with putting marine algae in freshwater tanks...

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Mats