Ceramic Clay for making aquarium rocks ??

[kostasonia]

Hi all !!

I have a new aquarium of 110L and I am still in the phase of cycling it. My quastions have to do with rocks.

(1)
I have read in many manuals this thing of "aqua fortis" (it´s actually nitric acid). It´s the chemical that if you throw it on the rock and it creates bubbles, the rock is not good for the aquarium. I collected some rocks and made the test. Many of them created really many bubbles but one or two just created tiny bubbles that went out 1 or 2 per second. Is it ok or should someone be really strict??

(2)
In the same manuals I have read that every ceramic material is ok for the aquarium. There are some clays sold in school material shops. It is sold wet in a bag and you can give to it the shape you want before you let it dry or even put it in the oven to dry it faster. Does anybody know what I´m talking about and if these products are ok for the aquarium? Is there anything this clay should not contain??

(3)
Any other suggestions about rocks???

Thanx!!!!!! :P

[William]

(1) What type of fish are you going to keep?

(2) Clay is usually ok but can some times contain metalls. You could use an aquarium friendly varnish to make sure that you seal in any potentially harmfull substances in the clay.

(3) Depends on the answer of (1)

[kostasonia]

I think I´m going to make a comunity aquarium. Some corydoras for the bottom and then terras, danios, rasboras..

What about this varnish? I´ve never seen it. Can you apply it to other material too? (like wood for example).

[William]

You could apply it to other materials but I wouldn't recommend using it on wood. There are benefits associated with allowing some fish to eat of the wood.