My wife's grandmother recently turned 88 and has moved in to the home of my wife's aunt and uncle. As a result we are cleaning out Nanny's house to prepare it to sale. Surrounding the plants in her garden, she had a rather neat collection of rocks from various places; by the shed I found a piece of coral.

The coral is round and looks half of a bowling ball, but smaller. It has several small deep holes in it that I thought would be great spots for baby ps. saulosis to hide. I have scraped all the pill bugs off and have some dirt I need to wash off of it, but was wondering what else I should do to it before putting it in my tank.

Yodahorn, is the coral smooth or does it have rough or sharp edges on it? If it's sharp, I don't think I would put it in the tank, just to be on the safe side. I'd also try to find out if it had been sprayed with anything toxic - week killer, fertilizer, etc.

With my rocks, all I do is soak them in very hot water, changing the water several times and then go over them with a stiff brush, then rinse well. If I pulled a rock out of the river, I might add a splash of bleach to the soak water.

I've never used coral, but I think I'd do it about the same way, making sure to do some extra soaks (with dechlorinator) if any bleach was used because I think of coral as being porous.

it is smooth and round, the surface is rough as coral is, but no more than lava or tufa rock. i think I'm going to clean and then boil it.

Sounds like a plan!

I just can't bring myself to put rocks (or coral) into my kitchen pots and pans. Prboy

I put the coral in last night and this morning everything was fine. After I boiled it and cleaned it I set in my front yard, by my front porch, because my father-in-law was treating the deck in the back. While it was outside, some pill bugs claimed it as their home. I rinsed them off before putting it in my tank. Apparently I did not get them all, so my fish had a pill bug feast, it was very interesting to watch.

Yodahorn


Keep an eye on your PH level.Coral rock can increase it so be careful.No need to panic about it just kepp an eye on it thats all

Derek

thanks fins, i'll watch it.