Cleaning Large Rock

[bfinn7994]

hey guys,

I'm new around here. I've had my bearded dragon, Bigby, for I wanna say, about 2ish months now. I have been taking ok care of him and he seems good, but I want to provide him with more fun things to do around his tank and some more fixtures to throw in there. I have a very large rock that I found along a trail near my house that would be a great thing to have in there, but I have no idea how to go about cleaning it. It is very large and I definitley cannot fit it in a pot to boil, so are there any other ways to go about doing this? Thank you

Finn

 

[Taterbug]

You could use a large plastic tote and scrub it in a dilute bleach solution. I wash big stuff outside with the hose, diluted bleach and a stiff brush. You could also boil a pot of water and pour it over the rock but depending on what it's made of and the contusion the hot water could break it.

 

[anwyn]

I clean a lot of rocks (geology buff) and I do a boiling soak in the sink. I just boil the kettle then pour it over the rock and add some bleach to make about a 10% solution. After scrubbing I let it sit for a day, turning over if needed, empty and refill sink with another kettle of water. Rinse several times. For my beardie's rocks I also then spray them with the reptile cleaner spray I got with my viv kit.

Mort loves her local slate piece for basking and has a nice round bit of Nordic granite that exactly fits her pancake belly and she dangles her legs off. (though she's outgrowing that!)

As a geologist... if hot water breaks the rock then it is probably too fragile a rock to have in the viv and would have crumbled under beardie claws anyway. Hot water really won't do anything to most rocks unless they're something soluble or mudstone/siltstone. (trust me, I've ruined many a shale/mudstone ammonite fossil in the soak!)

 

[AcceptableGeek]

Hot water, dish soap, splash of bleach, all in the tub. Get a good brush and SCRUB SCRUB SCRUB. I use a brush made for cleaning tires (car wash section at Walmart) it has thick bristles. This gets the rock initially clean from outside as well as a weekly or bi weekly washing for tank maintainence. It's what I used on the two rocks I found. Hope this helps.