Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So last night i got some rocks from the river. Soaked them for a couple hours in hot bath water with a tiny splash of bleach. Drained the water, let the rocks dry, then filled the tub back up with hot bath water and no bleach this time. left them to soak for about an hour. Drained the water again, and then rinsed all the rocks off with more hot water. Set up the tank, the filter, heater and rocks.

this afternoon i came home and if im not imagining it the water has a slight(very slight) odor of bleach....??? i added some AQUA PLUS tap water conditioner to treat the chlorine. My question is will the little trace of chlorine/bleach naturally go away(evaporation, conditioning etc....) or will i have to get rid of the rocks??? let me know what to do!!! I don't have the turtles yet, so don't worry there is nothing live in the aquarium. I am getting them tomorrow afternoon so i need to figure something out soon. PLEASE help!!!!

thanks, Dave

To be on the safe side I would drain the tank and get
different rocks. You can just wash them off good you
don't need to bleach them. It's a big chore but that
is the only way to be sure that your water isn't
contaminated with bleach.

Hope this helps.
Linda

yesterday i drained the tank. washed the tank and the rocks thoroughly. then i boiled all the rocks for 20 minutes(at boil).
then added dechlorination treatment about twice the suggested amount.

got my babies today, 4 yellow bellied sliders(born in august) and brought them home. the odor is gone, but to be on the safe side i bought some feeder fish and let them loose for about an hour to see if they would be affected. they are fine, and i know if the fish aren't harmed by the water, the turtles will certainly be okay since they don't actually breath in the water.

I am very excited they are awesome little guys and ive already named them after my 4 favorite turtles... mikey, raf, leo and donny. i know childish but it was my fav show as a kid, thats why i like turtles so much.

anyways thanks for your advice, dave

You should be okay usually chlorine disipates after 24 hours but using Aqua plus would help.

The should be fine then. Even though they don't breath
underwater any leftover bleach can irritate the skin and
eyes.

I have 5 turtles, two iguanas and a newly adopted uromastyx
it is easy to become hooked on these guys. My first reptile
was a eastern painted turtle. I have had him for 11 years.
They are all pretty spoiled!

Linda

I clean my tanks with bleach, never had any problem. People put bleach in cisterns and water tanks for drinking waterso some wont hurt. if you tried to rinse the bleach clean it should be ok