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Esp if its a tropical tank i am not talking about the flouro but the pebble type ones, I have heard that the blue ones can effect the water????

They say fishes are dumb, because humans need to be smarter in keeping the fishes alive.

No coloured stones should effect the water providing they are made for Aquariums. Now saying all that some coloured stones can give of a lot of glare and this is unnatural and "could" possibly effect the fish.

If the stones are too big the waste matter can get between them and make it rather difficult to clean the tank BUT that has nothing to do with the colour of the stones.

If you are wanting to grow plants which is always advisable a good natural coloured river pebbles 1-3mm to the depth of 3-4ins is always the best.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info
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Keith

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The blue stones look great and change the water into a realy cool looking hue. Just rinse and you should be good to go.

________________________________________
The calming qualities of a good aquarium are irrefutable

Hi,
I'm not sure what rocks you are asking about.
"flouro" or "pebble"???

Are you talking about colored aquarium gravel?
Are you talking about rocks that you have found out in
a field?

Colored aquarium is generally regular gravel that has
been painted with an epoxy paint and is considered safe
for tanks. The paint is inert as are the rocks so the
water is unaffected. In this case, "safe" means that the
paint (color) will not fade, nor leach out into the water.

If you are talking about natural rocks, Azurite and
Malachite are blue and green (in that order). These
are copper ores and will leach copper into the water and
will gradually fade in color. The leaching of copper into
the tank will eventually become toxic to both plants and
fish.

Generally, when talking about "affecting water" most refer
to the tendency for carbonate rocks such as limestone,
dolomite, or coral, to increase the hardness and pH of the
water. These rocks are most commonly used in tanks that
house the African Rift fish that require water hard water
with a pH in the 8's. If you are keeping fish that
prefer a pH in the 6s and 7s then you don't want to have
those rocks in your tank as the water will be constantly
shifting up-wards and will require constant water changes
to keep the values down.

"Safe" rocks are generally any of the Silicates, such as
Quartz, and some types of petrified wood.
Sandstones, where the "glue" is silica is safe. If the
glue is a carbonate, it is not "safe" and over time
the carbonate dissolves into the tank increasing the
hardness and pH while the grains of sand fall to
the bottom.
Other safe rocks would generally be igneous rocks such
as lava. Other igneous rocks such as basalt, would be
safe but are generally too dense and weigh considerably
more than a similar size piece of scoria (a type of lava).
Some metamorphic rocks such as Slate are aquarium
safe. Slate starts out life as shale which is sedimentary
and can contain kerogens (oil) that will leach out into
the tank an can create quite a mess. The process by
which shale becomes slate removes the kerogens and the
resulting rock, slate, is quite safe for any tank.

Many rocks are ores of some heavy metal and will leach
that ore into the water such as ores of iron, lead, copper,
etc. You do NOT want them in your tank as they eventually
will become toxic as I mentioned above with copper.

Hope this helps...
Frank


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