# ADA 'Superge' instead of H202?



## NeilW (14 Apr 2011)

Hey everyone   

Another brain picking for you.

I was thinking of gutting my nano and replacing the soil with gravel. In doing so I wanted to clean up my lovely dragon stone out of the tank before rescaping. 

I have read that H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide) painted on or as a dip is highly effective at this job. I don't have any of this stuff but I do have some ADA Superge kicking around instead. I currently use it on my glassware (as thats what it's meant for) but would this be asking for problems if I used this instead of H202 on my rocks (obviously with the same precautions of diluting and using de-chlor/rinsing after)? According to ADA it contains refined sodium chlorate. Any ideas from you chemical buffs?

Cheers,
Neil


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## ceg4048 (14 Apr 2011)

Hi mate,
            Why not just soak the stones in bleach or even Excel? Sodium Chlorate works as an oxidizing agent, but it's actually an herbicide that kind of does the same thing as bleach due to the chlorine/oxygen group (ClO3). i guess that's why it cleans algae and stains from hardware.

Cheers,


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## NeilW (14 Apr 2011)

Ahh that sounds like a cheaper and easier option. If I had the rocks in a bucket what sort of concentrations are we talking of mate?

Cheers


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## ceg4048 (14 Apr 2011)

Yeah mate, about 100X cheaper. The stronger you make it the faster you'll clean it. I reckon 50:50 for thin bleach and perhaps a little weaker for the thick bleach. It's not clear to me if dragon stone is painted or whether that is the natural color. A 5 minute soak ought to do the trick and you can scrub with a brush to speed things up.

Every hardscape cleaning product you see in the aquarium trade is just thin bleach with pumped up pricing. It's unbelievable...  

Cheers,


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## NeilW (14 Apr 2011)

I just saw hydrogen peroxide on TGM out of convenience and figured that I didn't need 1 litre of the stuff, so just a touch of cheapo household bleach will be ideal. I'm guessing unscented and the cheapest you can get is the way to go.

Seems a bit counter intuitive to go for the biocidal nuke but should be a good to start from scratch and have a big rethink to get it right from the ground up. All a great learning curve as normal.

Cheers Clive


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## Steve Smith (15 Apr 2011)

Thin bleach in a 1 or 2 litre bottle is about 60p from Tesco


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## NeilW (15 Apr 2011)

Awesome, I think my finances can cape with that one. Who needs ADA when you have ASDA


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## George Farmer (15 Apr 2011)

Bleach all the way for me.  

I soak my rocks in a 10:90 bleach water solution for 24hrs, then rinse in freshwater, followed by soaking in dechlorinator/water, then another rinse.  

Rocks look brand new with no scrubbing required!


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## Piece-of-fish (15 Apr 2011)

Great topic again from UKAPS. Thanks Neil, Ceg and George


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## LondonDragon (18 Apr 2011)

I used H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide) on my rocks while in the tank, emptied, sprayed on the rocks, filled the tank, emptied again and filled it up again  48 hours later, rocks were clean, I might do it again after the last week where the rocks have been covered again with algae due to lack of maintenance.


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## NeilW (18 Apr 2011)

George Farmer said:
			
		

> Bleach all the way for me.
> 
> I soak my rocks in a 10:90 bleach water solution for 24hrs, then rinse in freshwater, followed by soaking in dechlorinator/water, then another rinse.
> 
> Rocks look brand new with no scrubbing required!



Cheers George

I went for 29p bleach in the end   

How long did you leave yours to soak after in dechlor/water?



			
				LondonDragon said:
			
		

> I used H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide) on my rocks while in the tank, emptied, sprayed on the rocks, filled the tank, emptied again and filled it up again  48 hours later, rocks were clean, I might do it again after the last week where the rocks have been covered again with algae due to lack of maintenance.



I might try something similar, my plan is to;

- locate habitants and plants to a holding tank 

- empty the tank of water whilst syphoning out the old substrate

- paint on the bleach solution with a brush on the rocks whilst trying to avoid the attached moss and coral pellia

- 'flush' 100% a couple of times with fresh water. Leave filled for 24hrs with heavy dose of de-chlor then empty again

- reposition rocks slightly for flow

- add new substrate + plant up with mosses

- very mature filter and daily water changes to help make up for substrate bacteria deficiency

Sound good?


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## LondonDragon (18 Apr 2011)

Not sure what impact the bleach solution will have on the tank overall, I only used H2O2 while I had no fauna in the tank, I did notice some of the leaves of plants melted where H2O2 fell on them. If the rocks are large you might want to do tiny sections at a time.


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## NeilW (18 Apr 2011)

In which case I may play caution to the wind and just paint undiluted liquid carbon on them instead and give them a good scrub when the tank is empty. That way they should be fine with a good rinse, rather then soaking them in dechlor for 24 hours after? Could rescape in a day too


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