Aquarium safe rocks?

[cohazard]

Buy a small cheap travel toothbrush, submerge the rock in warm water for 15-30 minutes, then use the bursh to scrape the lichen off (if it won't come off let the rock sit in water longer or use a harder brush). This should also remove most of the roots and prevent the lichen from doing anything harmful in the tank (although I'm can't imagine it would anyway)

I already did that, that's how I got most of them off. The blue type isn't soft like the others were, it almost feels like coraline algae, lol.

I don't think lichens have roots. They just attach to rocks and start to dissolve them slowly.

I guess I'll just give them another soaking and scrubbing and put them in the tank.

I'll monitor water conditions 3 times daily, and remove the rock if they cause a problem.


Thanks for your help everyone,
Serg

 

[Squirt]

From my recent experience slate is perfectly safe, as I used a sizable chunk to weigh down a bit of driftwood. No fish casualties in 2 months since, just a few ghost shrimp deaths attributed to copper and/or being victimized by a fast growing opaline gourami. As for the lace rock, I also bought a large chunk with lichen and moss on it. I scrubbed it, and could not remove the lichen entirely either. I put it in the tank anyway while I fishless cycled, and some of the remaining lichen started to get a filmy, white growth on it. I think it was just decay and such, as i pulled the rock and scrubbed it off, and have not had any problems since. If this white substance would affect fish, i don't know, as my tank was unpopulated at the time. Good luck with yours though.