How to: Sterilize Rock for Aquariums
Boiling rock for 25 minutes will work. I usually use potassium permanganate overnight and neutralise the potassium permanganate with hydrogen peroxide. The oxidative action of permanganate not only sterilised the object but also cleans it.
Let us rationaly examine just what could be living in those rocks.
1) Parasites by defination need a host to survive, so unlikely any rock will have a large number of parasites.
2) Bacteria. Sure they can survive in soil and on the surface of rocks, but a simple washing and overnight immersion in any strong oxidant like chlorine or potassium permanganate is sufficient to kill all parasites and bacteria. You can neutralise with sodium thiosulfate or hydrogen peroxide. amquel will work as well.
3) spores. Very few bacteria can produce spores. again simple procedure outlined above is sufficient.
So unless you are dealing with teflon coated “aliens”, that can produce “molecular acid”, I would not boil any rock.
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