55 g tank question about rocks and what can hurt the fish?

i have a very large rock collection and i wanted to know if any of these could harm my fish

limestone with fossils in them
peacock copper
petrified wood
quirts crystal found with iron deposits
stalagmite
lapis lizaru (uncut)
agate (uncut)
garnet (uncut)
and a few metal figurines
brass
bronze
iron
any info would help i just dont want to kill any fish with my rocks

Comments

2 Responses to “55 g tank question about rocks and what can hurt the fish?”
  1. Ghapy says:
    March 25, 2010 at 3:59 pm

    limestone contain calium carbonite and will mess with your water. Stalagmite is limestone.

    Most crystals and regular rocks work fine. petrified wood works fine. Agate and garnet are fine.

    If unsure, pour vinegar on them – if it fizzes, it means they are like limestone and will mess with your water.

    No metal at all. Do not use rocks with veins of metal running through them. no copper, no brass, no bronze, no iron, especialy no iron.

  2. Parachromis says:
    March 25, 2010 at 3:59 pm

    Definitely nothing with any metallic content … period.

    Limestone or any calcerous mineral is going to buffer water to the alkaline side and increase hardness… so no unless an African Rift Lake set-up.

    Any of the crystalline rocks are fine as long as they have no contaminate mineral content (or metallics).These can be checked to see if they are inert by first putting in vinegar to watch for a reaction,then rinsing well and putting in dechlorinated water that has sat for a couple hours.You take a baseline pH/hardness when you put them in and monitor every day for a week for pH/hardness shifts. Get any … don’t use. Probably wouldn’t hurt to run a copper test about 3 days into the "soaking".

Powered by WordPress Lab