pebbles from dollarama...safe to use?

[reptile boi]

Hey,

I just went to my local dollarama today and noticed that they have little sacks of polished pebbles/rocks for sale and i was wondering if these would be safe to use in my guppy tank, or would the stuff they use to polish the rocks release some toxic chemicals into the water?




Thanks,
Ben

[KLKelly]

I've wondered about this also.  I bought like ten bags of them from the walmart craft section and boiled them to see if a residue would come off.  There was a film on the surface of the pot and marked up the sides/bottom of the pot  (Still have to see if CLR to see if that removes it).  I never put them in my tanks b/c I wasn't sure.

I still have the bags of rocks.  I'll be following your post to see what the consensus is.

Karrie

[reptile boi]

hmmm....does anyone have an answer? 

[Toss]

IMHO, if you only put a few for decoration, it should be fine. wash them throughly with a little soap and lots of water and put them a little by a little to see the fish reaction to it. Guppy is pretty strong breed, for comparison, I won't put them in a discus tank... too risky and if the fish dead, cost you a lot of money too.

[Underwater]

There are many things used to glaze the rocks.  Some of them are safe, some are not.

It's a calculated risk.  I'm with Toss in that if you add any, only add a few, don't use it as substrate. I'd avoid using soap to clean them, soap leaves a residue that can be very, very, very hard to completely rinse off.  Soap residue is deadly to fish.

Try a vinegar and water solution, followed by a rinse in boiling water to kill any nasties.

[FreshWaterTank]

Hey,

I just went to my local dollarama today and noticed that they have little sacks of polished pebbles/rocks for sale and i was wondering if these would be safe to use in my guppy tank, or would the stuff they use to polish the rocks release some toxic chemicals into the water?

I have used them for a couple years now in betta only tanks with no problems, I just wash them when needed in hot water and they go back in after the 100% water change.



Thanks,
Ben