Saltwater Snail Shells in a FW tank ?

[joannde]

I live in florida and go to the sponge docks in Tarpon Springs quite often and I'm ADDICTED to buying seashells in a miriad of colors, so I have quite a collection tucked away in a drawer doing nothing.
I was wondering if there would be any problems adding the shells to:
1. my 29 gallon tank
2. my two 2.5 gallon betta tanks (I'm thinking "Betta Toy" here)

Should I do anything to them beforehand (boiling ???). Would they affect the pH ?? Do they leach salt ??

 

[An t-iasg]

My cousins live in Palm Harbor and Largo - it's been way too long since I visited them!

I really would recommend against adding anything that was from saltwater - if these shells did actually come from the ocean - into a FW tank. They could forever be playing havoc with your water parameters - keeping the pH very high, and I don't know about continuing to leach salt, but it's possible. My husband and his brothers, when they were kids, put a shell they found at the beach in their FW tank, after soaking it, he said, but all the fish died.

You could try putting this shell in water and checking the pH, GH, and KH every day for a few weeks. You could get an idea of what it is doing to the water in the cup or bucket before adding it to the tank. But most likely, this shell will always raise the pH and KH and probably the GH too, and you may not be able to minimize the parameter swings through water changes, and that is what can kill the fish.

Also, what fish are in your community tank? (I don't think you have cichlids) Sometimes crushed coral is used in a freshwater tank to raise the pH, but usually in cichlid tanks, since cichlids need a pH of about 8 or so. But for a regular community tank, I wouldn't think that you need to raise the pH and using shells from the ocean, even as decoration, is risky.

 

[joannde]

Thanks ! I'm sure glad I asked frist. I'll pass - I don't need to risk my fishies

Come on down for a visit ! your cousins are really nearby !!! Let me know when you're coming and we'll visit the aquarium together !