Beach Rocks

[Boohoo]

Can you put beach rocks in a Freshwater aquarium? If so how do you prepare them before adding them? I'm talking rocks from a saltwater beach. And I have one other question. Do shells make your water harder and raise your PH? If they do how many should be kept in a 10g tank. I am trying to make my water harder and raise the PH as well, but I don't want to get into chemicals if I don't have to.

 

[Vitaliy]

There are certain shells that do raise the PH, others do not. Not sure about the water hardness. Another thing I suggest you do is, anything you find outside, boil it before putting it in your tank to sterilise and kill all the parasites, and not sure what effect will boiling have on a shell/rock and its ability to raise PH.

 

[jonathan03]

I collected these huge sheets of limestone from outside my house. I cleaned the mud off them with a hose outside and bleeched them for 1 day. Then I rinsed them and soaked them again for a day and repeated for a week. They seem to be fine after that. If your rocks are big, a 5 gallon bucket might be good. Just make sure there wasnt nothing too bad in it before.

As for ph raising, it might be good. What kind of fish do you have? Some fish need a high ph of 8+ like african cichlids. Ocean rocks might not be such a good idea if you have a fish that is very picky about ph and the water. If you have discus, I would look at something else. Discus are great fish, but they are easily killed by bad water.

 

[daveedka]

I would imagine you'll be fine, but more than likely In nova scotia you will have igneous rock as the primary, so you won't see much help with Ph or KH. If you happen to be getting sedimentary rocks then you will get a good calcium carbonate source which will raise the Kh. Pour some white vinegar on the rocks and listen closely for fizzing sounds. If it fizzes it will raise the ph. If it doesn't you will just have a nice rock to look at. I haven't worked in Nova scotia in particular, but the Canadian shield is typically granite/basalt based neither of which will raise Ph/Kh
dave

 

[Boohoo]

I should have been a little clearer. I have a 10g tank with goldfish at present. They are looking around now for a bigger tank as I know this is not acceptable. I know goldies like hard water so I would like to raise the hardness by adding shells. Does this raise the hardness??? I am also in the works of setting up a 55g tropical tank and I just wanted to add some beach rocks for decoration. I don't want them to raise my PH or hardness. It will be a community tank and I plan to keep it about 7.0 PH. If shells won't make your water hard, what will or isn't it really an issue? I have seen many posts that say stability is more important than the "right" ph. Sooo Confused!!!

 

[daveedka]

Shells (especially sea shells) are calcium carbonate for the most part, and will raise the Ph/Kh of your water slowly over time. how many, and how fast is more or less an experiment in patience. Other items that raise Kh are Dolemite, crushed coral, limestone and so on (all forms of CaCo3) Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) will also do the trick very very rapidly. But with baking soda you don't get the added benefit of the calcium. If you want to raise General hardness without effecting PH, then calcium and magnesium are your usualy additives. CaCl and MgSo4 (epsom salts) are typically used for this.

Raising Hardness and Ph is much easier, and much safer than lowering it. It usually isn't necessary to mess with, but if you want to slowly raising it to a specified level isn't so difficult. Most people who worry about PH are trying to lower it, which is full of frustration and disaster.
Dave

 

[Boohoo]

So if I want to add some sea shells should I just boil them first or is there more to it?

 

[Philbe]

I would say if it comes from the ocean it's not for a fresh water tank. Take a little trip down to the Gaspereau river and get your self some nice river rocks. Natural look and you won't have any confusion.

HTH Phil

 

[jonathan03]

You can boil or bleech sea shells. I prefer to bleech them because I don't want any dirt in my pots. I would assume that you have to put them in a pot or something metal to boil them.

Use google to find info about your tap water from the water company. Most local water companies post exactly what is in the water on their web site.

You won't see much of a difference unless there is a very large amount of these shells in your tank. Sea shells aren't meant to be the primary substrate, but only decoration. I would add them if you want.

I agree that water stability is more important than setting an exact value in most cases. Discus and very picky fish need certain phs, kh, etc. but most fish will take a wide range. Your tank will be stable as long as you add the sea shells and keep them there. Add a few at a time to avoid any possible spikes if your concerned, but they are unlikely.

We still aren't sure how many of these your adding.

If your stil worried than just do a test. Take a gallon or so of water from your tank and add some sea shells to it. Test the ph, kh, etc. in a week or so and you will find the exact effect. Its very unlikely that adding sea shells will do a lot of damage to your tank. This assumes your adding maybe 10 at most.

With goldfish, you should be more concerned about the temperature of the tank and the amount of space you have. Goldfish are very dirty fish and need frequent water changes, lower stocking, and colder water. The cold water is especially important. Please consider these things before the sea shells.

In my opinion, adding these sea shells will have much less of an effect than you think it will.

 

[Bmeasure]

I would imagine you'll be fine, but more than likely In nova scotia you will have igneous rock as the primary, so you won't see much help with Ph or KH.

Man.....look at the big brain on daveedka! I'm impressed at your forsight and knowledge to look at where he's from and then know the rocks most prevalent in his area....2 thumbs up :bowing: