Is Red Shale Aquarium Safe ?

[xshellx]

hi so im looking to get away from the fake plants and multi colour gravel i thought was a good idea when i started up i braved the wind last night to go hunting in the near by rivers and burns for some nice looking rock but came up pretty short due to the recent rain and hurricane force winds lol

Im wondering if red shale is safe to put in my aquariums after its been washed and bleached and the like ? Think i could do something with it so long as its not going to harm my fish.

Really hoping it will be ok as we have a couple huge bings 5 minutes down the road.

Thanks.

 

[This Old Spouse]

We've used it in our tanks with no problems. Avoid using bleach if possible.

 

[xshellx]

fantastic. looks like my tanks could be getting a free make over

Although i did go down to the beach today and got some beautiful pebbles, rocks and smooth glass that im going to build up into a bigger peice for my fry tank.

im really not sure how to go about killing the nasties without the bleach though as ive read many folk saying to boil the stones after washing but then some saying that its not the brightest idea... so any tips on getting the stuff aquarium safe would be fantastic as i am a little worried about the bleach and poss disaster if its not gone completely from the rocks

Thanks

 

[fluttermoth]

Just wash them in really, really hot water and then let them dry out completely.

 

[This Old Spouse]

Shale is fairly smooth stone and there's not a lot of places the nasties can hide. That being said, what we did was put the pieces in a 5g bucket, then pour boiling water over them and let that sit until the water cooled, then took a scrub brush and scrubbed all the surfaces. I'd be afraid the bleach would soak in and harm your fish. I think if you see any voids that could harbor harmful things, pour a little hydrogen peroxide in the void and then rinse thoroughly.