creek rocks?

[Josh708]

I have a creek behind my house and I was wondering if I grab some rocks to build a cave/mountian for my tank, if they will be safe after boiling and vinager test? Theres all differnt kinds of stone slate,limestone, and regular smooth round rocks under the water.

[Lady Hobbs]

They will be fine if it's all freshwater. Scrub them and use them.
Do not boil. Rocks can explode.

[Josh708]

I was thinking of puttig them in my cycled 20g for a while to see if they mess with the water at all. I didnt know u could use freshwater rocks from creek,ponds,streams that saves me a lot of money cause my lfs has insane prices for their rocks which look the same as some I can find. But one more question is limestone ok? Won't it screw with my ph?

[gm72]

Limestone will likely alter pH, should raise it and the hardness as well.

Lady, I think the temp necessary to have a rock explode would be far greater than that achievable during boiling, yes? Maybe I'm mistaken on that?

[jbeining75]

make sure you scrub em up good to get any lingering bacteria or debris.......

[Josh708]

After scrubing if I soak them in meth blue will that help extra?

[Josh708]

fter scrubbing will meth blue help also?

[OscarFan]

I dont know about methane blue. But I dont think it would be needed. And boiling rocks coul cause them to explode if they have enough air pockets.

[Arkie]

i just scrub any rocks that i find really well to get off any dirt and stuff. i havent had any problems at all, and ive put ALOT of rocks in!!!

[Josh708]

Ok so I'm gunna try a good scrubbing.

[Becikeja]

I would test it in a small tanks first. I found a really cool rock in a fresh water lake once. I did the vinegar test, soaked it in chlorine for a week, then soaked it in freshwater for a month changing the water every couple of days, and then let it dry for a month. I was just being over cautious to make sure it would be fine. Put it in the tank, and wiped out every fish in the tank overnight. Tested the water parameters and everything was fine including the chlorine levels. On the other hand, I have added many rocks that I have found just layig around and been fine. I'm just saying be careful. What I do now is add the new decor rock or other to a small tank with some feeders in it. Let it sit there for a couple of weeks and observe. If all is good in it goes.

[sushant]

don't think these many test will be necessary.scrubbing,vinegar test and treating it with methyl blue for some hrs may be enough.

[DragonGoby]

Most of the rocks are safe if you scrub them good...
But, to prevent what happen to Becikeja, I won't use rocks with funny colors : like green, blue and pink : it's a good sign that you can have metals like copper, manganese, or worst...
Hope it goes well to you and keep us posted!

[Becikeja]

This post got me to thinking about the rock that wiped out my tank again. I decided to do a bit of research on the area where I found it. I think I may now have discovered my problem. There used to be a transfer station for iron ore deposits that came down from upper Michigan. I just wonder if that had an effect on it? But it sure didn't seem like it. Who knows. Live and learn.

[DragonGoby]

Perhaps, it depends (spelling?) of the kind of iron ore... Some are composed only of iron and oxygen other are more nasty with sulphur, hydrocarbur and so on... So you could have find your answer... Still sorry for your tank...

[rocklobster]

i did that in my tank and I had talked to a few guys from aquarium stores and he told me that only certain types of rock were ok to use. Limestone was one of them. He told me that the vinager test does work, but after to scrub the rocks and give them a bleach bath. He said to use bleach becuase all it really is is clorine and you should have chemicals for your tank to counter act the it. so i just soaked mine in bleach water and scubbed them, then put them in normal water, and then after put them in water and put some decloranizer (sp?) on them.