Want to remove color from gravel

[Alreadyinuse]

Hi All,

I have a small bucket full of some rainbow colored aquarium gravel. The 'paint' has chipped or peeled off many of the pebbles, and it appears underneath the color the bare gravel is actually translucent, light cream, and light brown.

I know the gravel is aquarium safe because it used to be in my old tank for many years.

Does anyone know if there is any way to remove the color from the gravel?

Thanks!

[F1shkeeper]

why not just buy new colorless gravel?

[mvigor]

Rock tumbler?

[Alreadyinuse]

why not just buy new colorless gravel?

Because i'm cheap :p:

[mvigor]

You're going to spend a lot more money on this solution that you would spend buying a small bucket of new gravel.

[twig]

Get a natural gravel that isn't painted =)

[icecubez189]

just get new gravel. anything you do to try and remove the paint may affect the safety of the gravel and IMO, not worth the hassle.

[Alreadyinuse]

I guess i'll just get new gravel then. I was just curious if there was any cheap way to strip the unused gravel. Thanks guys.

[Sploke]

you could either try soaking it in bleach, but it would be a long process to rinse it to get it safe again, or try powerwashing it. That would more than likely make a giant mess though. I'd just buy new stuff.

[fishieperson321]

I found that you can buy 25 pounds of natural gravel at Wally World for $9.97. If you don't need that much, put it back for future use. :D