Black Shale

[SavnLife]

Yet another newbie question. Is it safe to use Black Shale in a freshwater aquarium? It is available down at a local river and its flatness and many shapes would make excellent cave and hideout building material... any thoughts ??? Thanks !!

 

[Allivymar]

Its quite likely to work well; couple of caveats tho:

Test the shale with a coupla drops of muriatic (sp?) acid; if it bubbles don't use it. It will mess up the water parameters.

Boil the hell out of it, or soak it in bleach to remove any possible microscopic hitchikers. Definitely don't want to add that to your tank as well!

 

[smidget]

i use shale picked up from the local river in my tanks and have never had any problems