River Rock and effect on tank?

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HOLLIEO

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I have divided part of my tank off to try and breed my Zebra Danios. I read to put marbles at the bottom of the tank, so when they lay the eggs they will fall where the parents can' t eat them right away. I had a jar full of river rocks that I bought at the craft store, so I used those instead of marbles. Will this be okay? Will this cause my levels (Ph, Nitrates, etc) to go out of wack and is this harmful to the fish?
 
yes, assuming those rocks came from an actual river, they should be perfectly safe ... any disolvable minerals in the rocks would have been washed away by the river ... a good rinse is all that is required

sometimes chunks of marble, limestone and other mineral rocks are polished and sold at craft stores as decoration, those would not be good

you can test yours by taking one and putting it in a glass of vinegar overnight ... if it looks like a powder or residue is in the glass or the vinegar has turned cloudly, then it's probably not good to put in a tank

rocks probably are better than marbles, as they tend to form minature caves from piling on-top of each other that very small fry can hide in and play around.
 
Wow. Thanks for the tip. I am not sure if they came from an actual river. I had originally bought to put in a clear vase with fake flowers. The container that the rocks came in just said 'River Rocks' and that was it. So, who knows??? I will try the vinegar thing today (tonight). If the vinegar turns cloudy, what does this mean? Why would it do that? and another one.... Why is marble, limestone, and other mineral rock bad? Please excuse the ignorance. :oops:
Just never really gave much thought of the effect of the rocks in my tank. :)
 
One thing you might want to do is boil the rocks for 10 min in a rolling boil. If these rocks came from the river recently then they could still hold some undesirable bactera. Boiling the rocks should kill just about anything liveing on them.
 
Darn! I hope they haven't introduced anything into my tank already :cry: What a dork I am! I can't belive I did not research it first. AAAAAAHH!! I guess I better take them out and do a boil!
 
HOLLIEO said:
If the vinegar turns cloudy, what does this mean? Why would it do that?

If the vinegar turns cloudy, or there is a fine power / silt in the glass or on the rock, it means the vinegar (which is an acid) dissolved something from the rock ... using vinegar is an accelerated method to see if a rock will dissolve in your tank.

HOLLIEO said:
Why is marble, limestone, and other mineral rock bad?

For most freshwater tank keepers, mineral rocks are bad because they release minerals into your water, making it "hard" and raising your PH

Certain setups that keep hardwater fish (African Chicillids I think?) use things like marble to make their water extra hard

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I agree with FF ... boil those rocks for 5 or 10 min ... who knows what they've picked up sitting on a store shelf
 
oh - hehe ...

if they're already in there - then don't worry about it - it's too late anyway :)

being packaged in a store (who knows how long) will have killed any aquatic bacteria, leaving only airborne or marginal bacteria

I would be more concerned about chemicals introduced when the factory polished those rocks, or cleaner residue from the factory or the store itself

chances are slim that any of these things will happen, or even hurt your fish :)

I've bought plastic toys off the shelf at Mejier and put 'em right in the tank, without even a rinse ... same thing with lake rocks, pick 'em up off the beach and right into the water

besides, it's fun to live dangerously 8)
 
Wow.. raise my PH? hmmmm, maybe that is why my PH is like 7.8-8.4. I guess that wouldn't help since my water is pretty hard to begin with. :oops: I still can not believe I introduced these rocks into my tank with out researching it first!!!
 
so, should I leave them or take em out and do a boil? I feel terrible. and I was trying to save myself from an unnecessary expense (the marbles) and use something I already had. If the rocks are doing something to my tank, what would I watch for (besides dead fish 8O )??
 
I don't think the rocks would have dissolved that quickly, your ph would not raise overnight, but rather over the course of weeks/months.
 
hollieo,

don't take the rocks out!

about the rocks dissolving minerals; if you're still nervous, just do a 5% water change every 2 days until your fry are a few weeks old ... use aged water that has sit in a bucket overnight

taking the rocks out will cause your fish stress, and if there was any bacteria on the rocks, it's already in your water, in the filter, on the glass ... you'd need to do a complete teardown to be sure you got rid of 'anything'

fish have immune systems, although not as sophisticated as our immune system, they do have some protection from bacteria and other 'baddies' as long as they are in good health and low-stress ... keeping your water clean and having good hiding spaces (like the rocks) will keep your fish in good condition, and in-turn, will allow them to protect themselves from infection.
 
your ph would not raise overnight, but rather over the course of weeks/months.
So, if I keep up with the weekly 25% water changes with the 50/50 mix of bottled water and tap water would my levels be okay?
My PH on my water out of the tap is like 7.8-8.4 normally and added to my tank with all my fish (yes. I have too many for my tank size) it doesn't change (even after testing after a week).
 
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