Real and I mean real coral reef skeletons.

My 75 yr old mother went to a garage sale and bought these old rocks that were pretty. The lady said they were live rocks which meant nothing to my mom. They were a buck each. She was collecting interesting white rocks for her garden. There's about 15 pounds of them stuck in the dirt. I saw them and begged her for them. She finally relented with a trade. When I took them home and cleaned them up I discovered they were the real thing. They are coral skeletons massed together and are amazing. She got them so long ago. I told her now they are illegal. Question is now, what would you do with them? I am so used to cultured stuff! Should they be okay in my tank? I almost feel guilty for even having them!

 

If you already have them you should be fine. You can't really return them to the ocean. I would go ahead and add them to your aquarium as long as they are clean. Perhaps soak them in a bit of distilled white vinegar in a while to make sure any bacteria on them is sterile.

can we get some photos of these coral skeletons?

 

That sounds pretty neat. Seems like everyone is finding all sorts of cool stuff at garage sales, except me. haha The joy of living in a "low-income" part of the city.

It's illegal to harvest coral from the ocean, live or not. But you can't get in trouble if you got it at a garage sale years ago.

vinegar soaking sounds good. Probably soak it for a day or two then soak it in RO water for a few days with water changes to make sure you get all of the vinegar out. Coral skeletons are quite porous even though they look solid. I have a plate coral skeleton that water runs straight through as if it was filter floss

 

K, working on it!

 

I forget to mention soaking in RO water when done with the Vinegar. Thanks, duoc.

 

So I think I got this. This is a first time posting of pics on a thread for me! I hope you can see the patterns on the coral skeletons. The rocks are made up entirely of these all massed together.

 

Some of these skeletons have moss on them from her yard ( we llive in the N.W. and it's everywhere) I actually boiled them and the moss won't die! So, I had a 20gal for years and it was great. I upgraded and failed. I finally have the new tank stabilized...almost. For some reason the rock anenomies lived as did the sebae. I thought they'd be the first to die! I don't think there's much bacteria to worry about now that I have boiled them to death. I was just going to proceed with a good soaking in RO now. I'm wondering about the stupid moss!

 

Oh, those looks cool.

If you boiled them I am sure the moss is dead. But there might still be soil on them. To remove the moss/soil, you could try an electric toothbrush.

 

I boiled this one a half hour and the moss is still green and spongy! It's extremely difficult to scrape off with a knife even as it is in some of the holes. It ruins roofing here because it adapts to extreme temperatures. I'm wondering could a little moss harm my tank? Especially since I am kinda starting new again anyway. I'm thinking maybe the salt will kill it with time. I dunno.

 

The salt levels would for sure kill the moss, but I would be worried about bacteria/chemicals in the soil leaching into the water column in your aquarium.