Can i put sandstone in my aquarium

Fail: sorry, no dice. Pass: Give it a go. Just keep up your water changes. If you notice funky sediment, if your plants start showing unusually vivid reds, if your fish start feeling ooky, then take them out. The water changes aren't just for your fish; they're to remove any excess heavy metals from your rocks, so it's going to be super important for you to keep up with them. Lea: Yes and no. Yes, you're right about the compositions of both of these types of rocks.

However, because sandstone is basically composed of whatever happened to be in the clay and mud at the time, it tends to be very high in "impurities" and other fun stuff; that's part of why it's so beautiful. Sandstone is like a rock sponge, that way. So, depending on where your sandstone was "born" and has "lived", it can indeed be high in CaCO3. It's always better to be safe rather than sorry when it comes to pH; crashes are such a huge pain in the tush.

Note about the geological information in this post: I'm a chemist, NOT a geologist. Please, for the love of fish, take this information with a grain of salt. It's what I've picked up from reading and working with ecology geologists, and should certainly be supplemented with actual scientific reading on the part of the reader.

I use something called sand stones in all of my tanks. It's the clay which would be the most concern as you say is is indeed full of various elements and in addition, highly soluble - which is a cause for concern in our tanks if I has heavy metals or messes with the pH.

And then there is it eventually eroding, so not fun to look at anymore. Thanks for the info - i;m a biologist with some chemistry background, so I like to tread carefully on these topics and it's nice to learn more from an actual chemist unless we can call on one of the geologists out there.

However, with lots of water changes, and if you do your siphoning, then you should be able to keep buildup from becoming a problem as long as you don't already have heavy metals in your tap water. Click to expand Not to mention parapsychology and astrobiology etc Dino? But seriously, thanks for that - nice to get a thumbs up from a proper geology nerd. Dare I ask, but what is your specific field? Sorry It took so long, but here are the photo's you wanted. This is where I collected them from, it's a site on campus that my lecturer told me about.

It's basically an embankment made of clay which is slowly crumbling away, dumping all of the sandstone chunks onto the path below. There's thousands of kilograms of the stuff just lying around for anyone to take, and plenty more in the embankments. It's definitely my new favorite spot on campus.

Here's a few of the pieces I got, these ones came out of the leaf litter, I have two more which I dug out of the clay but they were too dirty to make out. They are very beautiful, and they'll make nice paperweights if I can't decorate the tank with them. I'll definitely wash and trail them the way that crackerz has outlined, I'll probably get started on it by next week. Having said that, do you think that adding plants and perhaps some ferts during this period would do it any harm?

I've been wanting to plant the tank and it would be a good time to let them get established before I unleash the crayfish. I was thinking of putting in some vals, crypts , frontalis, Cardamine lyrata and perhaps some bacopta the latter two will be free floating The bacopta looks like it would make a good iron guage if I can get it to grow so I would like to give it a go, but would use of liquid ferts negatively affect the water quality?

I was thinking of putting in some vals, crypts, frontalis, Cardamine lyrata and perhaps some bacopta the latter two will be free floating The bacopta looks like it would make a good iron guage if I can get it to grow so I would like to give it a go, but would use of liquid ferts negatively affect the water quality? I guess I just never would have tried it, but mostly on suspicion alone.

I want to add here too that what interested me initially was the question of "sandstone" in particular. Well, it's nice to hear I'm being conservative; better safe than sorry, I'd say That said, holy geo lesson, batman!

Thanks for that, kf; is this really your first post ever?! Wow, kfblogger, that was an informative mouthfull. So I'm glad I came across this thread.

I have a piece of sandstone purchased from the Louisiana Art and Science Muesuem that is mostly brown with beautifuly darker red patterns in it, is this ok bc it's true sandstone and won't leech or should I aviod it bc it may have high Iron content?

I honestly don't think that will affect my PH at all, let alone in any significance, will it? My 2 cents worth I tried sandstone in my pond.

It disintegrated away to almost nothing leaving a layer of sand in the pond. Many gravels and rocks have a mixture of minerals, even in the same stone. Even if you think you have correctly identified a stone as a safe mineral, always test to be sure.

Outdoor gravel and smoothed stones can be collected in the great outdoors. Try ocean beaches and lakefronts, in dry wash beds, or along the banks of streams and rivers.

However, avoid collecting stones from underwater locations, especially in protected environments, as removing stones can disturb native habitats that wild fish and plant life depend on.

You can also purchase outdoor stones from a variety of sources:. All of these sources can provide you with inexpensive and attractive rocks and gravel. Just remember to take care in making your selections, and always test rocks or gravel before using them in your aquarium.

Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Does it alter water chemistry in any way eg ph etc.

Sandstone is perfectly safe to use, I have sheets of it siliconed into the back of a few tanks as a background - it does not affect the pH.

The only worry I'd have is you've mentioned that it is used for garden edging at the moment - if there has ever been roundup or similar near them it isn't a hot idea to use them. I've used sandstone in a couple of tanks as backgrounds, and never had a drama except for the weight.

I agree with Ash with stone's previous use. Due to it's porosity, it'd be a cast iron pain in the backside to clean any chemical contaminants out of it. You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account. Paste as plain text instead. Only 75 emoji are allowed. Display as a link instead.