Who is familiar with minerals…

[Magnum Man]

Lately I saw a story on TV, on one of those”weird earth” type shows, about glowing rocks in Lake Superior…
As I’m from Minnesota, I found it interesting… turns out the rocks contained sodalite… and doesn’t often glow on their own, but do occasionally, & particularly around UV light
I’m just wondering if those types minerals ( like Sodalite and Flourite ) would leach into an aquarium??? and why Seachem sells a black sand called Flourite, that doesn't glow ( at least they don't advertise it as glowing sand...

Lake Superior Sodalite (Yooperlite) Michigan

Lake Superior Sodalite is a variety of Sodalite, composed of syenite clasts containing fluorescent sodalite. These stones are made up of fragments of course-grained igneous rock, similar in composition to granite. Under ultraviolet illumination the mineral sodalite will fluoresce, creating...

goodearthrocksgallery.com

 

[Magnum Man]

Flourite...

 

[GaryE]

Fluorite dissolves...

 

[Magnum Man]

more on this effect and some color changing effects...

Fluorescent Minerals and Rocks: They Glow under UV Light!

A small number of minerals and rocks will glow with spectacular colors under ultraviolet light. Learn how this happens.

geology.com

Lake Superior Sodalite is found in usually water smoothed stones on the beaches, often under water, so it may be more resistant to dissolving???

What Are Yooperlites? Updated Guide to Finding Michigan's Glowing Rock with MAP

Discover everything you need to know about Yooperlites, the Michigan gem that glows! Learn where to find them, how to identify them, and how to care for them.

mymichiganbeach.com

Finding Lake Superior Sodalite - - Video Search Results

The search engine that helps you find exactly what you're looking for. Find the most relevant information, video, images, and answers from all across the Web.

video.search.yahoo.com

 

[Uberhoust]

Seachem Flourite (note the spelling) and the mineral Fluorite (CaF2) are two different things. I used to find the naming confusing myself, why Seachem choose the name flourite for their clay based substrate, likely because not too many people are familiar with fluorite.

Fluorite is not the best mineral for fluorescent effects but it is the most commonly known. A lot of minerals will fluoresce but so will a number of natural items such as Douglas Fir sap, some pine needles, some fungi, and scorpions (it's a lot of fun to walk the desert at night with a LED blacklight, the scorpion population is usually higher than one expects). Chalcedony from Arizona often fluoresces very well, as do a number of agates from various areas, it all depends on the various other elements found in the silca matrix.

If you are looking for fluorescent materials you can get a number of LED flashlights now that range in the 395nm (most common) to 365nm (not as common but still available). The lower wavelengths usually work better but even with the 395nm lights you can still get good results. Lower frequences work better most of the time but require pulsed LEDs or quartz fluorescent tubes and more power to work, lower frequencies can also be a health risk with 254nm often used to kill infectious organisms.

One interesting thing (trivia) to note is that iron in the crystals of otherwise fluorescent minerals will either partially or fully stop the fluorescence. Don't know how you would use this information.

I personally don't believe fluorescent materials should be part of an aquarium, primarily because I don't know how well fish and other creatures handle the higher energy, lower frequency light required to make them fluoresce. It is a highly unnatural situation.

 

[MaloK]

The blue led on most aquarium light are between 435-495 nm and are enough to trigger the effect with a lower intensity, but still pretty cool.

 

[Oldspartan]

Linda wants to put some small pieces of yellow and green Vaseline glass inside the glass box that is occupying the pass through. She is a collector of the glass and has but it beneath the blue light as a test. The yellow was quite bright the green pale but .... as I said Linda is a collector and quite taken with the stuff.

The glass contains uranium oxide which causes the glow under UV. The amount is small, less than point 2 percent of the glass mass. Generally considered safe, (we have not grown third eyes in her 30 plus years of collecting). However, fish may be a different story. So far, she has refrained, instead scattering some miniatures strategically adjacent to a couple of tanks. We have so far found no info on the subject and probably will not be able to do so.

 

[Uberhoust]

I think you would be OK with uranium glass in the tank. Uranium mostly emits alpha particles which are stopped by human skin and not likely to exist long in water. Another risk would be the generation of radon gas which would end up being dissolved in water which then would be a source alpha particles as well but inside the fishes guts and gills. Overall in my opinion the risk would be very low. I would love to have some of the original Vaseline glass, just haven't done it yet.

 

[Oldspartan]

I think you would be OK with uranium glass in the tank. Uranium mostly emits alpha particles which are stopped by human skin and not likely to exist long in water. Another risk would be the generation of radon gas which would end up being dissolved in water which then would be a source alpha particles as well but inside the fishes guts and gills. Overall in my opinion the risk would be very low. I would love to have some of the original Vaseline glass, just haven't done it yet.

There is also a magnesium glass. It requires a different wavelength than her Vaseline stuff ... 345, I think. It turns a fine shade of lavender. Rarer than the yellow, usually early 20th and late 19th century, which is rarer than the green which peaked in the Depression Era but was still midcentury popular. I have had many a lesson in the stuff when she explained the expense.

Burmese glass is another class that glows under UV. A bit higher in the uranium content but has a pleasant satiny look. I have only seen that in yellow around the house.

Pretty stuff. She decorates at Halloween with the stuff. The grands love it. Some nights I think I should wear sunblock.

 

[Oldspartan]

Did not mean to hijack the thread.