Don't know where this belongs!!!

[Northern Wolfie]

hi everyone...hope all is well..i guess this is a diy type of question..ok i work in the construction industry and today went out to a new jobsite..at coffee break i looked into a field and saw a white patch of what looked like just a pile of gravel..i went for a closer look and it was..but what was also buried under the gravel was a whole bunch of slate...nice pieces too..and nice size chunks..i brought some home today and gave them a good rinsing and scrubbing to get rid of the sand and mud..now i have them soaking in the laundry tub in hot water...is there anything else i should use or be doing to them before i use the vinegar test on them??

thanks in advance

 

[tdins_2]

sounds good give them a 20 min boil

 

[mhoward1999]

What's the vinegar test?

 

[drobbins27]

drip vinegar on rocks. if bubbles, rock is no good

 

[vantgE]

could use bleach to but remeber to rinse them well

 

[mhoward1999]

VantgE, Are you saying to use bleach to clean them or to test to see if it's okay to put in the tank? Does the vinegar test mean that I can do that on anything I want to put in there?

 

[modernhamlet]

Bleach would be to clean them, though you should of course rinse them very well if you use bleach.

Vinegar would be to test to make sure they aren't going to leech carbonates into the water, thus changing the pH and KH.

 

[vantgE]

yeah guess i answered wrong ithink what was the original guy asking just bleached mine and i found it cleaned them reall well

the vinegar test is to test acidity and such so if you keep fish with acidic water it doesn't aply from what i hear

 

[tsr770]

The best way to clean them with bleach would be a soak/scrub in 50/50 bleach water, then rinse them off and submerse them in straight water and add a bunch of the chlorine eliminator that we use for our city water during water changes and let it set overnight. I have done that on some dead corals and they turned out fine, 24 hours in the chlorine eliminator and they had no smell at all. This is probably the best way to do it when your dealing with larger pieces that you wouldnt be able to boil on a normal stove.

 

[Yenko]

The vinegar test is to test for Calcium Carbonate, which increases the hardness and PH of the water.
Edit: I'ts slate; you should be fine. If you know anything about rocks (I'm a bit of a rock nerd) then the only rocks you should be unsure about are sedimentary rocks like sandstone. Marble and limestone are garunteed to raise the PH.

 

[Great Lakes]

Yeah, I had slate in my last tank with no trouble.
GL