tank stuff

if you get rocks from the ocean and clean them really good can you put them in a fresh water aquarium? my cousin said he did it and he boiled it then put it in?

Before you put them into the aquarium, see if they fizz when you hit them with a few drops of vinegar. If so, don't use them. Any time you put something from a natural body of water into an aquarium, you risk introducing diseases, parasites, and reactive materials, so be very careful.

what about gems?

like topaz, rubys, quarts, crystal, and stuff.

i went to a gem mine in the Adirondack mountains and i found a tonnn of gems, so i wasz wondering if the would give off minerals?

Probably the rocks that contain the gems will have something that could dissolve into the aquarium water. The vinegar test is simple but limited. If you want gems in the aquarium, why not try some of those shiny things that are sold especially for fish tanks.

And now, here's an almost tale of woe. I had a big hunk of rock (petrified wood) in a 55 gallon aquarium and was messing with the plants one day when the rock crashed against the front glass. After I was all unpuckered, I checked the glass for cracks and chips, and none were apparent. It's not nice to scare an old man like that, so now the aquariums all have driftwood and no rocks. Malaysian driftwood and maybe other kinds can gradually lower pH and soften the water. The pucker factor of driftwood is also quite low.

wow, when i got my aquarium i never thought it would be this much responsibility, but i don't regret it i think that it is a healthy addiction.

LOL. That would have terrified me. Ever since I cracked the bottom of my ten gallon I have been having dreams of my 80 gallon getting a crack in it. A ten gallon is a much better mistake than an 80 or a 55 gallon. You got lucky!

I cracked the bottom of a 20 by dropping a knife in it with a cucumber on it for the plecos...

BLAH!

How do you react to a situation like that
Angela?

I could see myself now hands over ears screaming like a little girl doing something along the lines of the Irish jig.::

Well... The tank was on carpet... Which it shouldn't have been... But since I have horses now and NO fish room... GRRRR....

Anyways... How did I deal with it?... There were MANY explicitives... Much rushing around to unplug surge strips that were being sprayed... and trying to get buckets... large syphons... and nets...

I actually saved all the fish... by a miracle that could only have come from God... They resided in buckets overnight with airstones so that I could get another tank set up the next day...

Of course it happened at like midnight... At least I wasn't working at the time, and didn't have to go to work... LOL!

The really really bad thing was that it was a tank that was under another 20... That was wedged in beside a 20 tall over a 10... So the 20 and the 10 had to be drained to get the cracked 20 out.... BLAH!!!

Bad planning... Trying to fit more tanks where they didn't really need to be... LOL!

A few years ago when the front glass cracked out of my 55 gallon tank, I immediately started to deal with things by cussing and running around in small, precise circles. After that brilliant start, it was a bucket for the fish and a mop for the floor. Actually, it was summer in Phoenix so the floor didn't stay wet for too long with all the doors open.

I'm glad that it was just a 20... LOL! I hadn't looked at it that way...

I know what you mean about the circles...

you guys gave me a nightmare that i came home and my tank was cracked all over and my room was like a pool with fish flopping around all over!

hahaha.

i hope that never happens to me!

Me too!

The solution is to make sure the aquarium is evenly supported and to avoid putting big rocks in glass fish tanks or glass tanks for any other fish.