I am now to this fish tank thing. I want to put rocks from my yard in my tank and a friend told me i have to BOIL them?? Please help

you should definately scrub them in clean water, I personally would pour boiling water over them too to make sure anything nasty is killed off.

Also depending on the type of rock(s) used, it could alter the chemical composition of your tank water, namely the PH

Be careful of which rocks you add to your tank from the garden. If in doubt, then dont use them.

Its always a good idea to boil anything like rocks, wood etc before putting it in the tank. It will kill any nasty bugs that may be on them.

Most smooth, hard rocks are ok, just be cautious of those that have bits which could break off them, those are the ones that could alter your water chemistry. There is a test some people use, I believe its to pour vinegar over the rock, if it fizzes then dont use it. Someone else with more info on that will be along soon Im sure

Be careful you use a safe rock, i usually soak mine in a pond disinfectant from my LFS for 24 hours, then rinse well before using. Hope this helps

DO NOT BOIL ROCKS!
they may explode due to trapped air pockets.

the best thing to do is pour boiling water over them

^^ realy?? Never heard of that happening

Vinegar drop test;

Place a few drops onto the rock you want to use. If the vinigar fizzes, the rock isn't suitable, as the inegar is reacting with the chemical in the rock that alters the pH. If the vinegar just rlls off, the rock is safe. After preforming the test, scrub the rocks very well and rince also. It needs to be white vinegar, not the normal brown stuff. Regular vinegar isn't strong enough for some "dodgy" rocks

All the best
Rabbut

Rocks won't explode from air pockets. Hot air doesn't produce enough pressure to fracture rocks. They might explode if you boil them, drain the water, and then throw ice water on them, though, but that's from the uneven rapid temperature shift - you can break glass the same way just with hot and cold tap water.

Heck, one of the first things you learn in boy scouts is how put rocks in a camp fire to store heat - the rocks will provide enough warmth for some time after the fire goes out, and can even cook food if it isn't possible to restart the fire right away.

This post has been edited by Corleone: Jul 2 2008, 08:42 PM

I soak mine in bleach water for over night and then rinse, rinse, rinse and either let set out in sun or put in water with about 10 times the declor. in it to get rid of the bleach. Figure ain't much going to live after soaking in bleach water, I use aprox. 20% bleach and 80% water soak for an hour, pour half out and fill with water and let sit over night----I probably over kill but I've never had a problem.

Just a bit

This post has been edited by andywatson29: Jul 3 2008, 01:07 PM

tell that to the guy that posted about the dangers of boiling rocks on aquaticfishkeepers

I went down the street and walked along an out of commision railroad tracks and found what I believe are quartz rocks. They are pretty flat and smooth but some of them have red rust on them. I want to boil them and clean them will this take the red rust off? Or is it ok to have them in the mbuna tank with the red rust? I am also planning on doing the vinegar test first to see if the vinegar fizzles. Can anyone help me out because I am trying to get some rocks into my mbuna setup cause there is a lot of aggresion in it right now because not nough hidng spots.

I wouldn't put them in with the rust on them mainly because of the metal content. If boiling alone isn't enough, try scrubbing it with a wire brush.

If you have access to a rock polisher by any chance, that should take it off, and will also bring out fine details you can't see otherwise.

Ok thanks. I've got the water heating up right now. Not all the rocks have rust on them but the ones that do I will keep an eye on and see if the rust dissipates. If not I won't use them until I get a wire brush and try scrubbing them.

You shouldn't put rocks that have been soaked in water for any length of time onto a fire (according to Ray Mears) due to a risk of explosion, but personally I recently boiled up about 40kg of rocks and had no problems - except when I managed to spill some cold water on one of them - started to make a very ominous crackling noise, and I found myself going for a walk outside very very quickly - just in case...

If you are keeping mabuna, I belive they prefur a high pH? If so, many rocks that fizz, will actually become desireable, they will raise the pH and allow it to stabilise arround 8, ideal for this type of cichlid

These rocks are a risk to common trops, so don't use them for this use, but they benifit fish that like a high pH

HTH
Rabbut