did I just destroy my drift wood?

[Lauren]

I don't know what I was thinking, but when cleaning out my 10 gallon, the drift wood in there that had some little tufts of green algae, I threw it in the sink, soaked it and added a little beach. When I was rinsing it, the "no-no" of my actions dawned on me.

Should I just toss it, or is it salvageable?

 

[JosephMCorbett]

I would toss it. Driftwood isn't that expensive and it's not worth contaminating your whole tank and killing your fish. JMO.

J

 

[peleg38]

Bleach be gone

I believe if you dry it completely in the sun the bleach will be gone. You will, however, have to find a way to sink it again.

 

[jonathan03]

Recall that chlorine is a noble gas so at room temperatutre it will be a gas. If its a gas then it just floats away! I would still rinse off your driftwood though several times and let it dry just incase bleech as other chemicals besides chlorine. If it smells like bleech, then it needs to be washed more.

I have bleeched several things that I put in my tank. I found some very large sheets of limestone that I bleeched. It was obvious when there was still bleech on the rocks because of the smell and the bubbles. If there is still bleach on your driftwood, when you fill up a bucket with water and spray it there will be bubbles that stay. Normal water bubbles will go away fast but the bleach bubles will stay around.

the bes thing to do is to squirt down your drift wood with a hose or something with some pressure. Then fill up a bucket of water and soak it for a day. Change the water and soak it again just to be safe. I soaked my rocks for 4 days and didn't have any problems. But most of the soaking was to get the mud off not the bleach.

So rise, soak, and repeat if there are bubbles.

 

[Puffernewbee]

Soak it with a heavy dose of your tank water declorinator. Repeat by change the water several time and redosing with the dechlorinator.

I have a large hunk of limestone I keep in my puffer tank that I have to bleach every other week to kill the algae (I would love to have an algae eater but I am afraid the puffer will eat it). I just soak the rock afet I bleached it in several water changes and everything is hunky dory.

 

[happychem]

Chlorine is not a noble gas, those are limited to Helium, Neon, Argon, etc. It is a reactive gas and a decent oxidant, hence its toxicity.

More importantly, while Cl2 (chlorine) is a gas, sodium hypochlorite, bleach, is a solid when dry, but does form Cl2 in water. But there's no point in risking drying it and having some crystallization of the solid.

In any case, Lauren your wood should be completely salvageable. As recomended, soak it well for several days, keep it wet and keep the water trunover going. Next soak it in water with a heavy dose of dechlorinator, like 5x the recomended dose. Give it lots of time and don't be shy about draining the dechlor. mixture and refilling and redosing. It is very porous, but just as the bleach can get in, so can the declorinator.