How to Clean Coral From Fish Tanks

Having coral in fish tanks adds beauty to their surroundings and creates a natural habitat for fish, but it can get dirty. If you have live coral or rock, you must be very careful when cleaning, so you do not kill organisms. This means you should avoid over-cleaning it and should spot clean with a gentle touch.

Difficulty:

Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Cleaning Live Rock in an Aquarium

1. Skip household or commercial cleaners. Bleach, soap and solvents will kill your coral and could destroy the biological makeup of your tank.

2. Leave the coral in the water. Even a few minutes out of water can kill living organisms.

3. Use a turkey baster or similar syringe to shoot water into crevices of live rock to remove trapped sediment. This lets you remove algae growth, food buildup and other sediment that has become lodged in parts of the coral.

4. Squirt water carefully over coral after agitating sand or cleaning the tank. This "brushes" off any sediment that has settled, coating the tank with dust.

5. Keep a couple of hermit crabs in your tank. They will eat the majority of algae and other sediment that may dirty your coral.

6. Purchase other tank janitors that eat harmful algae in tanks, but leave good bacteria and algae alone. Snails, sea cucumbers and other organisms keep your coral clean without destroying the beauty and benefits of living rocks.

7. Try not to touch living coral or coral covered in living organisms. It is quite delicate and can be broken or killed with a simple touch.

Cleaning Coral Decorations from Fish Tanks

1. Use a long-handled nylon brush to scrub coral decorations lightly to remove algae or other growth. Do not scrub any coral that has been seeded for live organisms.

2. Squirt water with a turkey baster to dislodge trapped material without breaking off arms of the coral decorations. This lets you keep the coral in the tank while you clean it.

3. Remove coral from tank and soak in vinegar to sterilize. Any live organisms living on the coral will die and you will have to reseed.

4. Rinse coral carefully before reseeding and adding to the tank. Vinegar residue can harm the conditions of the water. You should only remove decorations in extreme situations, as cleaning them in the tank causes less disturbance of the conditions.

Tips & Warnings

• Turkey baster or syringe

• Snails

• Hermit crabs

• Nylon brush

• Vinegar

• Cleaning the outside of the tank with ammonia-based cleaners can also kill your coral and other live rock, as ammonia in the air gets into the water.