Is This Rock Safe For Aquarium Use?

[donny7]

I found it outside, boiled it, scrubbed it and let it soak in a bucket of hot water. I poured vinegar on it and it did not bubble. I'm just concerned it could be mudstone, but I need some help identifying it. I want to know if it'll potentially leech calcium or any potential heavy metals as I'm not sure if it's completely inert.

Also, will introducing it to the tank disturb my ecosystem? I have 2 goldfish and a Jack Dempsey in there right now. The goldfish are feeders he refuses to eat, so they've become friends and whatever. I'm donating the JD as well as the goldfish soon and stocking with an angelfish, some tetras, honey gouramis, and a few corydoras. If is disruptive initially, will it harm the bacterial colonies in my filter? Because if the rock seems to be fine, I'll quarantine it in there with the goldfish, I just don't want to risk severely disturbing the bacteria.

Also, while I'm here, I have 3 tetra clear 10 gallon filters on the current tank, which is a 20 gallon. They take an insert, just a piece of charcoal I believe covered in mesh, or maybe it's carbon? I don't know, but it's really heavy and black... is it time to change it? It's been in there for almost a month and a half.

I'll include the pics in my next post.

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[donny7]

Anybody?

 

[waterdrop]

Testing for fizzing, with vinegar, as you've already done is the main test we usually encourage people to do, so you should be pretty safe. If you are still concerned and want to go beyond that then another thing you could do I suppose is keep the rock in a container of your tap water over a longer period and observe it or even run some more obscure tests - I believe you can get liquid test kits for some of the other things you might be concerned about - but I've never heard of people actually doing this.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[mislisa]

I believe the rock should be ok, but i'd be concerned about an angel fish in a 20g, as they get quite big.

 

[micko]

I'm really unsure what type it is to be honest. Has the colouring of sandstone but doesn't look to be the same texture.

You've stumped a stone mason.

Where did you get them from?

 

[Geoff-]

looks like sandstone, which is porous. i am pretty sure i killed fish before by putting a porous rock in my tank as it came from the beach and even after repeated washing/soaking/boiling I am sure there were still nasties in it.

 

[donny7]

I found it outside my house, haha. Aren't porous rocks safe for an aquarium? I'm just concerned with it crumbling so easily. I'd like to use it to build a rock wall and what not, but eh, might not to be to big of a deal considering I can't find any other pieces.

 

[Geoff-]

non-porous would be safer - porous rocks soak up water and chemicals and then leach them out later. something non-porous just needs the outside to be clean and then it's fine, there's no exchange of water or minerals with the insides.

 

[micko]

I wouldn't boil a porous rock, that amount of hot air could cause a big bang.

Building a wall would be a better job for it in my opinion.

 

[nehpets81]

One of the nitrate testing bottles (on the API master kit) is quite acidic and I tested a rock first with vinegar - no fizzing, then with the test bottle and it fizzed quite a bit so might be worth a try if you're still worried about it not being inert.

 

[waterdrop]

One of the nitrate testing bottles (on the API master kit) is quite acidic and I tested a rock first with vinegar - no fizzing, then with the test bottle and it fizzed quite a bit so might be worth a try if you're still worried about it not being inert.

Oh, very interesting idea, is it bottle #1 or #2?

 

[nehpets81]

I had to double check at home to make sure it was bottle #1. In fact, this bottle is pretty much dilute Hydrochloric acid.