Slate for tank.

[AndyD]

I want to get a narrow slab of slate for the bottom of my tank to create a naturalish cave setup. Have a piece as a support on one end and the plank stretch across.

My question is, is there anything special to look for with slate?

In our neighborhood they used a lot of dark gray slate pieces to build sort of water breaks/mini dams on the various slopes for when it rains. It looks great and I was thinking of getting a little piece and use it in the tank.

How would I know if its safe? I will try to find a piece and take some pics for you guys.

[VIP]

hello little black ktty ANDYD!
lucky you that you have aapot to find some pieces of that great rock...i ll put it everywhere if my house was bigger !aaaaaa

i had slate before in my tank.
someone i know brought it from Gaspesie (its in Canada, Quebec province...)
i had 4 big pieces, super flat that i pilled up with river rocks... you can check out my gallery if you want( its in the early pictures tough...i found something else to put in my tank since and just changes the decor a bit....) it looked pretty cool i think, i just love slate so much ... my bathroom 's floor will be black slate...just need to install it.

i didnt found that you have nothing special to do before you put it in your tank... its rocks after all. i brushed and scrubed it very well before i put it in the tank and all was fine. didnt change anything in my parametres.

the only thing i did noticed though is, because it is a friable ( dont know if this word is ok in english...it means its break easily in little tinny pieces anyways...) you will end up seeing a lots of little particules when you are vacuming the bottom of the aquarium...but i cants seems to be able to take it off, maybe with an vacuum that is plugg in with some kind of motor maybe but not with the syphon technique...

hope that help you a little...

[AndyD]

hello little black ktty ANDYD!
...
the only thing i did noticed though is, because it is a friable ( dont know if this word is ok in english...it means its break easily in little tinny pieces anyways...) you will end up seeing a lots of little particules when you are vacuming the bottom of the aquarium...but i cants seems to be able to take it off, maybe with an vacuum that is plugg in with some kind of motor maybe but not with the syphon technique...

hope that help you a little...

I know "friable", je parle francais. But I also don't know the English word.

I got a nice piece, its in a bucket overnight, will scrub it tomorrow, then put it in the bucket again submerged and see if it changes the ph in 24 hours. If not, I will put it in the tank and see what happens.

[Northernguy]

You can try pouring some white vinagar on it and see if it fizzes.If it does it will raise your ph.You will have to test it in a bucket .
I think it should be fine as long as there are no contaminents on it.Just clean it really well under hot tap water and give it a scrub with a brush.

[VIP]

i didint know that trick with the vinagar... thanks to you Ontario man !