Is bleach suitable for cleaning fish tank ornaments or not?
It should be safe to use bleach on nonporous rocks and natural gravel, but for tank ornaments it is not safe, especially long term. Over time, bleach can etch glass, causing a blurriness to the surface like that on some bathroom windows. If you use bleach on wood, plastic items, silk plants, or equipment with plastic components, the bleach will make the plastic, silk, or wood weak and brittle, and de-colorize it. Except for artificial plants, where the change is obvious from the start, it may not be noticeable from one use but the damage builds up each time. When moving parts in filters and ornaments break, it is later so you don’t connect the problem with the bleach, but bleach was the cause of early failure. Dechlor and complete air drying remove the danger of the bleach to fish and live plants, but the damage is already done to the equipment. Trapdoor snails are largely immune to the effects of bleach, unless there is a hole or crack in their shells. They close up and wait for the s
