A couple of notes on bleaching...

1)  Once you have bleached the shells to the desired level, you need to soak in
fresh water until all of the residual bleach comes out.  You may need to change
the water a couple times in this process.  Otherwise the bleach will form
chlorine crystals one it dries and these will stay in the shell and deteriorate
it over time.

2) For years I wondered why bleaching did not seem to work on some shells. A
chemist friend of mine clued me as to why about a year ago. Well, it was not
specific to the shells, it was because of how I treated the shells first.
Often I would wash an scrub the shells first, even soaking the in soapy water
for a while.  The soap (detergent) I was using is Dawn Dishwashing Liquid.
Turns out that detergents such as this one have neutralizing effect on
bleach. ... and even though you rinse of soak the shell, the agent apparently
stays in it.  So a simple green algae spot on a shell may not come out.

.. therefore if you want to bleach, don't wash your shells with "detergent"
dishwashing liquids.  Dishwashing "soap" like Palmolive may not have the same
negative effect (unknown)


Best Regards,
Leslie Allen Crnkovic
HARF-IMCS Natural History Books
§ Specialized in Sea Shells & Marine Sciences
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