Hi I was just wondering if anyone could help me out, I brought some ocean rock locally second hand and it came from a marine tank which I found out after I had brought it, and was wondering if it's ok to use and what sort of cleaning or soaking before I put it in my cichlid setup. Thanks for you help

Just seeing if anyone had any advice on this as I still have the ocean rock and am contemplating selling if cannot be used???

Hi!

If you're keeping cichlids, I believe you can use ocean rocks. Ocean rocks (I think most of them are coral rocks) is very good to keep pH high as most cichlids prefer high pH. Also cichlids live in a rocky landscape.

Just boil them and soak them in water before using them!

Some cichlids need low pH though, do you know what your cichlids prefer? :)

It will be fine for your Malawi set up if you give it a good soaking and scrubbing, followed be a few good rinses in freshwater to clear out any salt.

rinse it and chuck it in if it's malawi/tanganyikan as they'll enjoy the tiny amount of residual salt thats in the rock

maybe scrub with a nailbrush if its got bits of growth on

or if you wnt it pure white then a bleach solution, 1 part bleach 19 parts boiled water (roughly, no need to be exact with the rock) leave in over night and rinse in morning, soak for 12 hours, re-rinse and smell it, if it still smells of bleach soak again and re-rinse until it has no bleach smell

i've done it the bleach route many time, just go for the cheap plain (unscented) bleach and its easy

Just a quick one, is ocean rock unseeded live rock ??

And would it work in the same way in a Malawi set up as a marine set up ie as a filter if water was pumped through it, just curious thats all,

nah its a solid calcium carbonate based rock, commonly used as a base rock in marines but it never goes live

Why ?
Sorry I like to understand these things,

It has to be dead coral, with losds of surface area.?