# Boiling Rocks.......Beware



## zeus108 (May 1, 2010)

Hey everyone just joined and was going through some postes and saw one on using rocks from outside in the yard. Everyone has great advice but one thing I want all to know.....

DO NOT BOIL YOUR ROCKS!!! 

This is very dangerous. If the is an air pocket inside the rock and you heat it up and cause the air to expand it can accually explode. Much like putting a can of beans that are not open in a fire. 
So be careful. :thumb:


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## Number6 (Mar 13, 2003)

*zeus108*
1000% agree... I've never understood the idea behind boiling a rock... seems very dangerous for very little (or no) benefit.

I prefer Hydrogen peroxide and sunlight to dry... nothing left on the rock after that cleaning! including the cleaner :thumb:


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## KaiserSousay (Nov 2, 2008)

Bleach water bath
Soak..soak..soak.
Rinse.
Dechlorinator treated water
Soak..soak..soak.
Done


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## Potus (Dec 11, 2009)

Though I know the concept the flat statement that it is dangerous to boil rocks is not accurate. The exploding rocks you hear about usually happen around campfires where you are repeatedly heating and cooling the rock from outside temperatures to anywhere between 600 degrees and say 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. Most campfires range in the 600-800 range unless you are cooking or trying to melt something. When boiling a rock to steralize it you are doing this once and only bringing it to boil at around 212 degrees Fahrenheit.

There is also the question about what type of rock you are boiling. Some types of rocks will not absorb water and would not be able to trap any liquid. Other types of rocks would be too porus and water would not have trouble escaping.

In order to explode a rock you would have to quickly build up a great deal of pressure inside of the rock in a short amount of time. If you bring the temperature and pressure of the rock up slowly it would be more likely that the rock will crack, failing at a specific point, and never actually be able to explode.

I personally have never seen a rock explode; but around the campfire I use during the summer there are numerous rocks that have cracked in some place or another. I have heard and understand the horror stories but besides creating the perfect rock exploding storm in your kitchen I have to take this warning with a large grain of salt.


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## Bweb (Mar 31, 2009)

I have three creek beds in my yard and get tons of rocks for my fifteen tanks out of them. I rinse them under hot tap water and put them in the tank and I don,t believe I've ever lost a fish do to a WILD FOUND ROCKS LOL. Unless you are trying to get debris out of holey rock I do not understand all of the effort people put into sterilizing rocks. I under stand rocks of different types can affect PH which could be beneficial in some circumstances and some contain heavy metals which could be harmful to fish so we would not want to use these in our tanks. Fish come from Nature don't they. I guess if you collected rocks soaked in gas or diesel fuel you would want to boil and bleach and soak soak soak.

Just venting Sorry Now have at all you rock boilers LOL


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## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

A lot of advances in human technology may have started with people putting fire and rocks in proximity. Maybe that's how we found out that coal can burn, limestone can be made into portland cement, sand will melt into glass, and some rocks produce bronze and later on iron and then steel. So the early rock boilers may have made not just our aquarium hobby possible, but the whole civilized sheebang. So boil away if you must. Now baking rocks in the oven or zapping them in the microwave... I'm sure we can find some destructive and hazardous way to prep our new rocks if we just keep trying.


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## RaizedWICKED (Feb 10, 2010)

Wow!!!  never looked at it that way..

I boil all rocks and never had an exploding one. However there is a first time for everything. 

May try a different method, one of the ones mentioned above.

Thanks for the heads up

RW


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## Number6 (Mar 13, 2003)

*Potus*
perhaps explode isn't the right word, but boiling rocks can crack violently enough to slosh the water over the side of the pot... seen it, shook head at it and will stick to the safer methods of cleaning aquarium decorations! :thumb:


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## prov356 (Sep 20, 2006)

> I do not understand all of the effort people put into sterilizing rocks


It's not just about parasites or disease, but snails. I still have them in some of my tanks from a few rocks that I only scrubbed before using, and that was years ago. if collecting from the outdoors, sterilize with bleach. Easier than boiling, at least to me.


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## ShagPower (Mar 11, 2010)

bleach in bucket then rinse well..boiling is a waste of time


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## georgiasam (Feb 26, 2014)

I was also weary about boiling rocks, but have never had one explode on me. I boil them to make sure there are no parasites living inside any pores. Bleach could do the same thing, but it makes me nervous. I always thought, what if I don't rinse enough and bleach gets into the tank


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## atreis (Jan 15, 2013)

I let mine sit dry for a month or so, scrubbed them by hand, then ran them through the dishwasher with lots of vinegar. Seemed to do the job.


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## Alleycat (Dec 2, 2006)

I bleach mine too, then let them run a hot cycle through the dishwasher- wife isn't a fan, but she'll get over it. I don't have the patience to let sit a month, so in they go and I don't have any issues.


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## zimmy (Aug 13, 2010)

Bleach is the way to go. I've bleached dozens of rocks over the years as well as given many new plants a bleach solution dip. I even ran a bleach solution through an old canister filter to clean it. All you have to do is use dechlorinator on whatever you've bleached to make it fish safe again. With rocks, after the dechlorinator treatment I just let them sit out to dry and once the chlorine smell is gone they're safe to go in the tank. I've never lost a fish as a result of using bleach.

The main reason I bleach rocks is to ensure I'm not introducing snail eggs to the tank.


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## kd5exp (Mar 21, 2014)

I also run mine through the dishwasher. Mine has a sterilization cycle where it gets the water above 160. Never had a problem.


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## sweety (Jan 10, 2010)

I stopped boiling rocks years ago after I had a few split wide open & they made a bit of a bang when it happed :roll: these days I leave them to dry out for a couple of weeks then blasted them with the pressure washer :thumb:


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