What an unsupervised 5 year old can do to a 30 gallon tank

I guess you misunderstood. I meant rinsing it in fresh saltwater (in a bucket) and then put it back in the tank with new saltwater. I've done it and it doesn't kill all of the bacteria as I would have had another cycle or lost all of my fish. Neither ever happened. And the rinsing will remove all of the polluted water from the nooks and crannies inside the rock.

 

Thanks for all the help. I cleaned the tank....ewwww stinky!!! But it's clean, and I have started to Nuke the rock. Really glad I don't have to replace it, and good point. I would definitley be worrying that not cleaning the rock could be the reason to possible future problems. That was a very good point. Now I have another question. I only have a 30 gallon tank. I have a 100 gallon nano skimmer and a 50 gallon hang over filter. I've heard you can get combo filter/skimmer sumps for a smaller tank like mine. Anyone have any good recomendations? If not, I'll just keep what I have. They seem to work fine, but would love for aesthitic reasons to get the hang over the back filter and skimmer off my tank. Let me know your thoughts. Thanks.

 

You could always buy a small tank (15g?) and use it as a sump. You have a good opportunity to drill your tank for the overflow too.

 

Well, I wouldn't say I misunderstood, I would say it was never specified

I agree though that a SW rinse won't harm the bacteria in the rock. I've done it many times myself.

A rinse won't do anything for phosphates. You can't rinse phosphates off. Rinsing does nothing for the interior of the rock (in the pores), only the surface area (it would be an aerobic rinse, not an anaerobic rinse).

It's why you can't nuke rock by rinsing it in bleach water. It has to soak, it's the only way to access the interior of the rock. Short of breaking it apart. (well boiling works too, but that's still a soak)

 

This is precisely why I advise folks to stay away from 5 year olds. Baaad news man, bad news.

 

+1 ;d;d