“Is this safe” thread.

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PheonixKingZ

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Hello TFF people! :)

I have had a lot of Doubt lately, on what is safe to go in a fish tank?

So I have a few possible thing so that could go in some of my tanks, but I just want to make very sure of all of these, before adding them to my tank. :)

  • Play sand. (Is it safe? Any type? Any brand?)
  • Super glue. (Same as above. ^)
  • Hot glue. ( ^ )
  • Plants/ moss from outside or from local pond.
Thank you for your time. :)
 
  • Play sand. (Is it safe? Any type? Any brand?)
  • Super glue. (Same as above. ^)
  • Hot glue. ( ^ )
  • Plants/ moss from outside or from local pond.
Most sand & gravel is safe but bags of sand can be contaminated by chemicals (herbicide or pollutants) at nurseries and hardware stores. The sand itself can also be contaminated before it is bagged up.
All sand or gravel should be washed well before being added to an aquarium.

Super Glue is safe as long as it is dry before being added to the tank. It has been used for years to glue coral fragments onto rocks in marine tanks. The glue dries within a couple of minutes and is safe when dry.

No idea about hot glue.

Terrestrial plants can be poisonous (have toxic sap) and don't do well when put underwater. They basically suffocate and rot.

Plants from ponds can be used in aquariums but might contain snails, hydra, dragonfly larvae and other parasites that can affect the fish. All new plants (regardless of where they come from) should be quarantined for a couple of weeks before being added to the tank.
 
Thank you so much! I was almost certain, that super glue was safe. I’m glad I didn’t try any of the other ones!

@Byron, you say you use play in your tanks. What specific brand do you use? I forgot the brand on the bag I saw, but it said it was clean, and kid safe. Thank you! :)
 
There is nothing unsafe about play sand. I live in North America and use Quikrete Play Sand. It is available from Home Depot and Lowe's, and possibly elsewhere. There is no safer sand; contamination is just as likely if not moreso for any "aquarium" sand or gravel. I corresponded with Quikrete a few years back about their play sand; it is processed to be safe for children, who as someone mentioned in another thread are often putting stuff in their mouths; the manufacturer said the machines are washed prior to processing play sand to avoid problems.

I personally would never use any form of glue (aside from aquarium-safe silicon which is a "glue" in its own right as it bonds things together) inside an aquarium. That doesn't mean it is not "safe," but there is no reason to use glue so don't.

Plants from outdoors are never safe. Terrestrial, obviously as Colin said. Aquatic are also very unsafe depending where you live. Those of us in temperate regions will find that native aquatic plants cannot manage under permanent warmth, they need the winter "die off" period and in the aquarium I've never heard of any temperate plants managing well. I have some of the temperate species of Frogbit which I purchased from a fish store many years ago (nine or ten now) as Amazon Frogbit (the true tropic species) but after it flowered it was obviously the temperate species. It has survived, just, but never done as well as my other floating plants, obviously because it is not a true tropical species.

The other and more dangerous aspect of collecting local plants is one of disease and pathogens. Watercourses across the earth have unique pathogens. Tropical waters have pathogens differing from those in temperate watercourses. Fish living in tropical watercourses build up immunities to the pathogens living in those watercourses--if this were not so, the fish would all have died out millions of years ago. Same holds for fish living in temperate watercourses. In both cases, the fish are not immune to the pathogens of the other watercourse. This is one of the big dangers of releasing any aquarium living creature (fish, plant, snail, shrimp, etc) into the natural ecosystem. Even if the creature does not itself decimate the local fauna, it can introduce new pathogens that may very well do so.
 
Thank you @Byron. And would I still need to buy root tabs? Or does play sand have any plant nutritious value? Thank you! :)
 
Thank you @Byron. And would I still need to buy root tabs? Or does play sand have any plant nutritious value? Thank you! :)

There is no plant nutrition in play sand because it is inert. Same as with any basic aquarium sand or gravel. [Calcareous sand/gravel will dissolve calcium and magnesium which is why they are not suitable for freshwater tanks except hard water species like rift lake cichlids or livebearers of course.]

Plant fertilizer depends upon the plant species and numbers, and the GH of the water and the fish load/feeding. Plants get nutrition from all these. I use substrate tabs for large plants like swords, lilies; I like the tabs because they do not leech nutrients into the water (I've no idea how Seachem achieve this, but it is the case) so algae is not aided. A complete (comprehensive) liquid may help all plants especially floating.
 
Thank you!

What brand of root tabs do you recommend??
 
Thank you!

What brand of root tabs do you recommend??

I have been using Seachem's Flourish Tabs for ten years now and I can absolutely confirm they do make a difference to large plants like the larger swords, aponogeton, lilies. I place one close to the crown of these plants and it is replaced every 3-4 months.

There are API root tabs but other members have been negative in comments on these and I have never tried them. Given the tremendous success I've had with the Flourish Tabs, I have no intention to change.

Eleven years ago Nutrafin manufactured a "Plant Gro Stick" I think it was named, which was inserted in the substrate and replaced every year (yes, once a year). I used these for a year or two, and boy did they work. I could not believe the difference; I had one next to a large sword and none next to another sword further down the tank, and the difference in growth was very impressive. I have been unable to find these anywhere in the past few years, so presumably they are no longer being manufactured. I probably should contact Nutrafin to confirm, just haven't got around to that. The flourish Tabs are providing good results, no problem there, but the sticks were much less expensive with replacement once a year.
 
Thank you! I will look into getting some of those! Will they work in both gravel and sand? :)
 
Thank you! I will look into getting some of those! Will they work in both gravel and sand? :)

Yes...but do not disturb them. They very slowly leech nutrients which the plant roots easily take up, but if disturbed can be a bit of a mess. I poke them down and never do any substrate "cleaning" around plants anyway.
 
Superglue is used uncured in reef tanks all the time to anchor corals. It actually forms a film as soon as you expose it to water, which is a quick way to make it set if you only have a tiny amount of it. Reefers put big globs of the gel form onto the base of frag plugs so that film gets broken when it's pressed into whatever it's being glued to (otherwise it wouldn't actually stick). Gel types are easier to work with in aquatic situations than runny ones; brand doesn't matter.

Hot glue is also used all the time but should be cold before it hits the water. Commonly used to make DIY breeder nets out of plastic mesh.
 
Oh, so hot glue is water proof, and safe to go in Aquarium? :)

(It has to be completely tried and cured, to put in the tank, right?)
 
As long as it's just normal hot glue and cool before it goes in, yes. I used hi temp sticks for ages for DIY aquarium stuff with plastic mesh. Only issue I've ever had, other than its structural weakness, is that animals can chew on it over time and eventually destroy the join it's holding. It's only really an issue with some large snails, plecos, and urchins.
 

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