The Puffer Forum

Hi all,

i went to a lfs today and brought some stones,pebbles or rocks whatever you may call them, i noticed they are the same type the green ones as the biobe pebbles u can buy from reef. After i brought them i was wondering if they are safe for aquarium use the lfs guy said yes i use them in my tank and he does but i learnt never to trust a lfs and what they say.

So if any of you can give me your opinions if they are safe and whether they will leach anything into my tank that will harm my puffer will be highly appreciated, i asked the guy if these will affect my ph and he said maybe a little but because its only such small quantity it wont affect my tank at all, i have some biobe pebbles (green ones like the above in one of my tanks and have had no problems).

the weight of all these rocks are about 7 or 8 kg in a 4x2x2 tank

i did test the rocks if they fizz with white vinegar and nitrate test kit (read online to use that) and no fizz whatsoever, i kept them in boiling water conditioned with prime for over 8hrs,tested the water ph and its over the 7.6 on the api liquid test kits (slightly darker blue than the card)

this one is the same as the biobe ones and the others i have never used before.

The last 2 pics look like that rock has calcite in it.

Should be ok in a FW tank. Keep an eye on that PH / KH/ GH

the others should be fine.

Thanks J-P when i was thinking of posting i knew you could answer my query
im going to look online as well but what does calcite do and what is it?

ok found out what calcite is which is limestone which can buffer my ph so i dont think i will put those 2 rocks in.


J-P do you know what the other rocks are called or made of?

"What is it used for? Calcite/limestone is used for making glass, paper, photography, statues, building, and animal food."
"CaCO3 It has calcium, carbon, and oxygen in it"
http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/00461/calcite.htm

In the state it is in now, polished and formed under pressure it will be less inclined to leach things into the tank. As its limestone state yes... it will dissolve eventually and hake your water perams off (ph problems etc)

but it could also be quartz (silicon dioxide).. I am leaning towards calcite because of the polished shape of the rock and quartz is much harder.

the others .. I have NO idea .. the top almost looks like unpolished jade.

the 2 middle ones are a total mystery. I can ask a friend who is a rock buff but I doubt you'll get an answer today.

it is that white part along the rocks in the bottom 2 pics that caught my attention.

Limestone does not look like that but after years of pressure it can turn that milky color

That will be great J-P thank you

i just dont want to put anything in my tank that can potentially now or in the future harm Asha

if the rocks can raise my ph will it still do that at such small quantitys?

Hi! J-P pointed me toward this thread. I'm a rock nerd. =D You've got some great-looking rocks here - I especially like those green-grey ones with the white streaks.

It's great that none of them reacted to vinegar; that eliminates a lot of problems right away.

This thread from the Krib has some information on rocks - specifically, that most big rounded cobbles like you have there are going to be safe for aquarium use, just because they have already spent so much time underwater that anything they're going to leach, they've already leached. They get that shape by tumbling in a stream, after all!

Can you take a knife blade and try to scratch that white streak in the lower rocks? If it scratches with that, will it scratch with a copper coin? (If the knife won't do it, the coin certainly won't.) The reason I ask is that those streaks look like quartz to me, and quartz is inert and nothing to worry about. =)

thanks for jumping in on this one

how would we know if the rocks were actually river rocks vs tumbled and polished for mass market?

Thank you so much for taking the time out to help me sixwing & j-p, the jade green one I have another which is bigger than that pic but in a shape of a cube just smooth edges that's all, I have not put those in my tanks yet but the orange ones and the burger shape stone lol is in the tank.

I'm at work right now so I will do the scratch test when I get home.

Sixwing what are these rocks? Quartz?

if it is not calcite in the bottom 2 yes it could be quartz, I've just never seen it so milky like that. The red one looks like it has some quarts veins running through it.

the green and brown rock looks like an alien egg off some bad b-movie

all my quarts has sharp edged and is somewhat cubic.

J-P wrote:the green and brown rock looks like an alien egg off some bad b-movie .

lol now that you mentioned it I have to agree

how would we know if the rocks were actually river rocks vs tumbled and polished for mass market?

Great question! XD
I suspect that it is much easier to go pick up some river rocks than it is to actually tumble and polish rocks that big for sale - but that's just going off of what I know about polishing little rocks, which is both expensive and time-consuming. Also, most or all of those rocks have deep gouges and scratches, which would indicate either natural polishing in a streambed or really lousy mechanical polishing.

LOL, it's tough to ID a rock from just a picture! Then again, it's tough to ID some rocks with the actual specimen in hand. My best guess (and it is a guess) is that you've got a bunch of microcrystalline quartz variants - jasper comes to mind, especially for the seriously orange rock and the first, green one. The grey and green veined ones, I've got no idea! It looks like a conglomerate from around here, honestly, that has half a dozen different rocks and minerals in it.

Crystalline quartz is very pretty, sharp-edged, clear, etc. Massive quartz - which is my first guess to those white streaks - is opaque to translucent, white to ... well, a bunch of colors really, and neat stuff. (It also takes a great polish.)

That green and brown one is pretty cool! =D I'd be tempted to slab it and find out what's inside.

You've got some lovely rocks there Wen!

Hehe sixwing if u were in uk I would let u slab it and see as I'm curious too

the quartz that are polished nice and shiny the ones you can get from jewellers and stone shops are you able to put those in a tank with any problems? I have some yellow jasper and rose quartz that are from a holistic shop.

I have a couple of jade coloured stone buddhas with a transparent jade green colour I'm not sure what it is but I doubt it's real jade or expensive jade at that, will they be safe to put in too?