Brick In A Tank?

[Romble]

I was at home depot and in the gardening/landscaping area and saw these decorative bricks of many colors, shapes and sizes. Anyways I am wondering if anyone has tried this in their tank? Building a small brick wall with spaces so fish can swim through like caves. I posted pics i took so you can see which I mean and the info sheet on them to see if they could be harmful to fish or the water?
thanks

this is how I thought I would lay it out....something along those lines

 

[rdd1952]

The problem with those is that they are made of concrete. Cement is made from limestone thus they would most likely raise your KH & pH.

 

[Socks]

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Besides being concrete 98% of these paver type bricks are treated with chemicals to make them resistant to acid rain,salt,all the things that we humans have put into our environments.They are treated when they are being made and there is no way of washing them clean of it.Would kill fish I'm sure.

 

[rdd1952]

While manufacturers do use chemicals for those purposes, I'm not certain they would be an issue but they certainly could be. I used to work for a company that sold and marketed them. The larger versions are routinely used for sea walls along lakes, rivers and ponds. I doubt the EPA would allow anything that could be harmful to the aquatic life.

Of course, on the other side, you are also talking a lot larger scale there. Having a few hundred thousand square feet of sea wall along a 520 mile shoreline like Lake Norman near me really isn't a lot of block for the volume of water (3.4 trillion gallons). It would probably be more like chipping a 1/2" sized corner off the blocks pictured and dropping it in the tank.

 

[Nick16]

use slate instead mate. looks better as well.

 

[rdd1952]

One other big drawback on those is the weight. If you are talking about building a wall of them, that would be a lot of weight concentrated on a small area. I would be afraid it would crack the seams of the tank if not the glass itself.

 

[Socks]

While manufacturers do use chemicals for those purposes, I'm not certain they would be an issue but they certainly could be. I used to work for a company that sold and marketed them. The larger versions are routinely used for sea walls along lakes, rivers and ponds. I doubt the EPA would allow anything that could be harmful to the aquatic life.

Of course, on the other side, you are also talking a lot larger scale there. Having a few hundred thousand square feet of sea wall along a 520 mile shoreline like Lake Norman near me really isn't a lot of block for the volume of water (3.4 trillion gallons). It would probably be more like chipping a 1/2" sized corner off the blocks pictured and dropping it in the tank.

Aye,I worked as a landscaper for some 4 or 5 years,in that time we installed alot of patios,walkways,and walls of all types,we also installed ponds and water gardens.We had a number of people (mostly pond owners) who were very concerned about what was used around their ponds,on research by the company owner (also a pond dude) it was determined that the things used to treat most of these could not be good for aquatic life at all.Most of the time we ended up using natural stone because of this.
I didn't do the research myself so i don't know what it does,but I do know they contain these things and I do believe they would and do leach out.I also believe any chemical is not good for your tank or pond.

 

[nsomnia]

def a bad idea, you cant make brick with out chemicals.