Bleaching your Decorations?!?

[Timmain42]

I've recently found that a local aquarium service group/LFS uses bleach to clean customer's plastic plants.

Does anyone else do this? It seems rather dangerous to me...

[Skittyfish]

As long as you rinse,rinse, rinse, and then soak and rinse with dechlorinated water, should be O.k.

[dolphin7]

I do not recommend using bleach to clean tank decor or equipment as it will kill off the beneficial bacteria that have colonised on it. This is the same with treatment additives like chlorine and chloramines which are present in tap water.

Try old tank water or a couple of algae eaters.

[mogurnda]

My opinion is that the bacteria on a few decorations is a small fraction, and you will see no effect from killing them. If you want sparkly clean decorations, bleach is good. I rinse heavily, soak in a high dose of DeChlor (or any other Na thiosulfate dechlorinator, but obviously don't waste your money on water conditioners). If you use plastic plants, they're good to go once they're dry. Better to let rocks air dry, preferably in the sun, for a few days. We did it a lot when I was at a LFS, because customers want shiny clean tanks. Probably not worth the effort at home, where most people want a more natural look anyway.

[djlen]

I agree with Skitty and Mog. If it's needed, any inanimate object can be bleached 50/50 bleach/water if once done the object is rinsed thoroughly and then dipped onto a container of water with 'Tap Water Conditioner' in it to remove all traces of the bleach. I would leave more porous objects such as rock in the 'conditioner' water for a while longer just to be sure it's free of bleach.
BTW, you can dip live plants into a solution of 19:1 water/bleach for a minute or two with no problem, to remove algae. I would not use this method on 'delicate' plants, but anubias will do fine in this solution.
Len

[superstein61]

Yep, I agree with the prevailing sentiment here. in fact, just cleaned some petrified wood rocks and a piece of driftwood with some anubias plants in a 19:1 dip yesterday to take care of some dreaded BBA

[valerie]

I use bleach all the time on plants and decorations. I have never had a problem. You jsut have to make sure to rinse and soak well in declorinated water.

[stik6shift98]

i dont know about bleach....but my dishwasher does a great job:D