Is limestone harmful to fish?

EBoxell9584

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Sep 16, 2003
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Indiana is known for its abundance of limestone and I get all my aquarium gravel from a rock quarry down teh road. I typically pick up a few larger rocks for decoration as well and in one particular tank I had 3 large rocks one of which I know is limestone. After putting the stones in teh tank I noticed the water got a bit cloudy which is to be expected with limestone so I wasnt concerned. Then a couple days later I noticed some of the fish were looking bad so I took out the rocks one at a time starting with the limestone and almost immediately the fish looked better. But I don't understand if it was the limestone why the pebbles dont affect the finsh in teh same way because I know that there is limestone in the pebbles. I also thought it could possibly have been something on teh rock but I scrubbed them thoroughly before placing them in the tank. Any ideas on this situation??? Let me know!
 
A) Limestone will raise pH. If your fish don't like it high, you'll have a problem.

B) Limestone may contain trace elements of stuff, mainly metals, that you don't want int the tank, like copper or lead...
 
but why dont the pebbles of limestone affect the fish? they are still in the tank the only rock out of the tank is the large piece of limestone.
 
Quantity... and perhaps composition... the pebbles might not have much limestone in them. But a big piece of it will affect all manor of things.
 
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