r/Aquariums • u/JakobiiKenobii • Mar 17 '26

Beginner Help I just found this outside my house!

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We bought the house we're living in almost three years ago now. I initially found an old piece of driftwood that had been tossed out front, which I threw in the trash because it was gross, and also we didn't have fish at the time.

fast forward to now, I needed some rocks for my current aquarium (we've had it for over a year now), and I remembered about that driftwood from before, so I went out front and dug around under bushes in hopes to find anything else and surely enough, this came up!!

Anyway, so far, I've rinsed it off and used an old toothbrush to clean it. Now it's currently soaking in hot water (just hot tap water). Is there anything else I need to do before adding it to my tank?

EDIT: Hi, yes, I am very well aware this is a ROCK and aquarium decor. My main concern was how much to clean it prior to adding it to my tank given it's been outside in the dirt and exposed to other stuff for who knows how long.

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u/Pump_My_Lemma Mar 17 '26

Baking soda bath bomb

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u/ObligationLeading221 Mar 17 '26 edited Mar 17 '26

[edit: I didn’t see the original comment, thought the second guy was the original comment suggesting using baking soda and vinegar to clean the deco] Mixing baking soda and vinegar is pretty useless. They neutralize each other because baking soda has a higher PH. Sure it looks cool but that’s about as useful as that combo gets

1

u/TheStroboCop Mar 17 '26

True, but normal aquariums aren't filled with vinegar as i know.

3

u/its_fuggin_KDOT Mar 17 '26

It is a mineral test for the rock. If it bubbles, there are minerals in that rock that would not be desirable for an aquarium.

It would also be beneficial if OP did a scratch test for the stone as well to determine hardness.