prepeation of sea shells for fresh water aquariums

[Megfish]

I am so desperate to find out about sea shells, I have lots of beautiful shells and would like to put them in my tropical fish tank I also have a cichlid tank so I am not to sure if the shells will create problems so I haven't put them in do you need to do any thing special to the shells to put them in the tank?

 

[Boxcar Muzzdogg]

The best thing to do, to make sure you kill possible parasites, is to put them in a bucket of water with about a capfull of bleach. After that rinse the shells well, then resoak them in a bucket of fresh water, then rinse again. I'm not sure is anything else is needed, such as baking or boiling. Let me add that I've never done this to sea shells so I don't know if the bleach would affect the appearance. I would test it on a shell you don't plan to use.

 

[Torrean]

seashells affect PH so if you use them monitor yourPH regularly to catch any fluctuations.

 

[Teelie]

For cichlids they should be ideal as they prefer a high pH anyways but you'll still want to monitor the level incase it fluctuates too much. I have some for a shellie tank I'm setting up but so far haven't cleaned them. I think soaking them in boiling water for a few minutes will do it though most should be fairly clean of parasites anyways, I still want to remove whatever might be on them.