Bleaching is easy, a mixture of 1/3 to 1/2 bleach to water will clean up
your coral of any left-over dead critters in a day.  Be careful as it will
also do a job on your clothes if spilled and can cause some serious skin
problems.  Stabilizing is something else.  This might have been done at one
time to coat the coral and allow it to be used in a salt water aquarium.  If
you just use the coral as is, it will eventually be dissolved by the water.
I have some old pieces I used to use in my tanks to attest to this.  If you
are just going to keep the coral as a dry display, then the bleaching is
sufficient.  When it looks nice and white and there are no bubbles rising to
the surface, take it out and carefully rinse it in cold tap water.  After it
dries you are ready to go.  You can also do this pretty much as well by
leaving it in the sun and rinsing it once a day for a few days.  By the way,
it may or may not (probably not) remove the tinting from your painted piece.
Oh, and the bleaching only holds for solid calcium-type corals, not those
that seem woody (black coral) or those that seem jointed as the bleach will
eat away these joints.

Tom Eichhorst in New Mexico, USA

-----Original Message-----
From: Conchologists List [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of
GARY FREDRICKSON
Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 12:56 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [CONCH-L] Cleaning coral specimens


Hi,
If this is off topic too far I'm sorry. I recently received a large piece of
coral that was described by the dealer as not bleached or stabilized.
Can anyone tell me the proper procedures,like how to stabilize or even what
that means plus what sort of concentration of bleach I should use. It is a
shade of grey white at present. I bought it because the only other piece I
had that appeared to be related was tinted a delightful shade of
pepto-bismol pink. Has anyone had any experience in trying to get rid of the
tinting? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Gary

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