Rocks

[Ascendant]

My uncle collected some rocks at the beach down at his holiday house, his also into aquariums, but im not sure if theyre safe to use.

Theyre white, smooth and rounded, the size of a cd except in more of an oval shape, and the width of say, a lightweight portable cd-discman, or a small novel.
By the looks of them, I dont think they will leak much, they seem pretty solid and smooth enough.

He also collected some shells.

I've put them all in a metal pot and i've been soaking them in boiling water for the past 12 hours.

What do you guys think?

[Nautilus291]

Im not an expert on this but it sounds like you are taking the right steps into preparing the rocks.

Some Pictures would be nice too. you cant really tell what kind of rock it is just by words, unless you are really descriptive.

[Ascendant]

I'll have some images up in a few minutes, bare with me please thumbs2:
EDIT:

Here they are; (56k - warning!!!)

http://aok.astralbb.com/AC/rock.JPG
http://aok.astralbb.com/AC/rock2.JPG
http://aok.astralbb.com/AC/rock3.JPG
http://aok.astralbb.com/AC/rock4.JPG

[Fishguy2727]

Pictures do not identify rocks either. Putting acid on them and seeing if they fiz will tell you whether they will harden the water and raise the pH. And any metallic deposits on them will make them inappropriate for any tank.

[Sasquatch]

One little trick that could be useful ...

Check you water quality test kits. Our nitrite kit (NO2) and Nitrate (NO3) test kits contain hydrochloric acid (HCl). Just put a drop of this solution on your rocks.

If they fizz or bubble or dregrade, you shouldn't put them in the aquarium as they will increase the pH and hardness.

[Fishguy2727]

That's only if you do not want this to happen. There are a number of freshwater setups where this is a desirable affect. For the most part this is a bad thing, but it is not bad for all freshwater setups.

[Ascendant]

I just bought some aquarium rocks instead.
I also added a few shells from the beach thou after boiling them:19:

[Fishguy2727]

The shells could still raise hardness and pH.

[jeffs99dime]

yes. the shells probably will raise the ph/hardness

[NorthernBoy]

I can try to help you identify the rocks better if you can so a couple more tests for me. The acid test will help as well as a few other tests such as a streak test (scrape the rock against a porcelain tile) and tell the the color of the streak, and also scrape it against a piece of glass and tell me if it is harder than the glass. Aslo if you can describe the "feel" of the rock, ie. soapy, greasy, smooth, rough and so forth. Just from the picture I would say it "looks" like it could be a rock formed of calcite or dolomite which will both raise the pH of your tank.

[Ascendant]

Well apparently goldfish like a PH alkaline, 7 - 7.5.
Mines reading at 7.1 after putting in those shells, ill monitor it further though.

[Fishguy2727]

Good, some fish need the higher pH and hardness and others will suffer from it.

[Ascendant]

I tested out those rocks and the only chemical indicator that made the rock fizz was the Nitrate bottle 1 from the API master test kit.

But the Nitrate bottle didnt say it contained HCl. Only the Nitrite bottle said it did...

[Drumachine09]

One little trick that could be useful ...

Check you water quality test kits. Our nitrite kit (NO2) and Nitrate (NO3) test kits contain hydrochloric acid (HCl). Just put a drop of this solution on your rocks.

If they fizz or bubble or dregrade, you shouldn't put them in the aquarium as they will increase the pH and hardness.


You can also use a drop of vinegar