Rocks and Wood how do i make them safe?

[patrickriley2010]

Ive been seeing alot lf people talk a about putting wood in their tanks.

Some of you may know from other posts that my parents have 50 acres with a 2 acre pond woods and Creek. The creek bottom in is solid rock like just giant sheets of rock lots of broken bits and pieces though.

I wanted to make a little rock structure in my tank how would I make them aquarium safe?

And for wood there is all kinds of washed up logs from storms and beaver ****s . What kind of wood can go in a fishtank ?

Thanks

 

[Coyne]

I've just got some rocks and cobbled together a cave for a future crayfish. The advice/instructions I was given was:
Give them a super scrubbing with water as hot as you can take (no detergents though) and when your done do a final rinse with boiling water. I used wire brush "grill cleaning" brush. Don't actually boil the rocks. If there's an air pocket in the rock you risk it expanding and exploding.

When the rock(s) is dry, splash some white vinegar on it and see it anything fizzes. Fizz means there's calcium or carbonate or something that you don't want in the tank and I was told not to use it. Make sure you rinse off the vinegar.

Finally, drop the rock in a bucket of water and leave it there. Test the PH after a couple days and again after a week. If there's a change in PH then keep in mind it will do the same to your tank and decide if you want to use it. It was also recommended to me to check ammonia, nitrites and nitrates as you may get the rare oddball rock that can leech these into the water. Better to find out now the pulling your hair out later.

I used aquarium safe silicone sealant to glue the rocks together. I let mine sit for 48hrs before testing to see if it would hold and it was, well... rock solid.

Also, there seem to be lots of people on the forums that can identify some rocks if you post a picture of it and give you an idea if its safe or not.

 

[patrickriley2010]

I've just got some rocks and cobbled together a cave for a future crayfish. The advice/instructions I was given was:
Give them a super scrubbing with water as hot as you can take (no detergents though) and when your done do a final rinse with boiling water. I used wire brush "grill cleaning" brush. Don't actually boil the rocks. If there's an air pocket in the rock you risk it expanding and exploding.

When the rock(s) is dry, splash some white vinegar on it and see it anything fizzes. Fizz means there's calcium or carbonate or something that you don't want in the tank and I was told not to use it. Make sure you rinse off the vinegar.

Finally, drop the rock in a bucket of water and leave it there. Test the PH after a couple days and again after a week. If there's a change in PH then keep in mind it will do the same to your tank and decide if you want to use it. It was also recommended to me to check ammonia, nitrites and nitrates as you may get the rare oddball rock that can leech these into the water. Better to find out now the pulling your hair out later.

I used aquarium safe silicone sealant to glue the rocks together. I let mine sit for 48hrs before testing to see if it would hold and it was, well... rock solid.

Also, there seem to be lots of people on the forums that can identify some rocks if you post a picture of it and give you an idea if its safe or not.

Great thanks I think I'll take my dogs down to the creek and go looking for some rocks !