Sparkling Slate

[fry_lover]

Hi

Just seen some very dark (almost completely black) slate in my LFS. It also had a "sparkling" element to it LOL, hard to explain, but like it has had a light dusting of glitter

It sounds hideous, but it actually looks quite nice, and when i say "sparkling" i just mean a very light coating of something that just makes it look a little bit more eye-catching than bog standard slate

It costs £1.99 a kilo, is that a normal price for slate?

Just wondering

(a) has anyone heard of this before, seen it or used it

(B) i wonder if it contains anything that would be a problem for fish and the water quality

cheers

 

[DarkEntity]

You cant use it in the tank, the sparkling is probably fools gold, which is a real no no.

 

[fry_lover]

thanks for feedback, i will back off the idea i think, what do you mean by "fools gold" anyway, cheers

 

[GUB]

I believe fool's gold = Iron Pyrite, was called fools gold because it was sometimes mistaken for gold by prospectors.

 

[Ava_Banana]

Hi,

Just my opinion, but I would have hoped that Slate sold in an LFS would be "fish-friendly", you could always ask where they got it from.

Googling around gives a number of compositions of slate which could give the sparkling:

Slate, a fine-grained, homogeneous, sedimentary rock being composed of clay or volcanic ash that has been metamorphosed in layers. It is also made into roofing slates, called 'roofing shingles' in the US, due to its two lines of breakability, the cleavage and the grain. This property of the slate makes it possible to split it into thin sheets. Finer slates are also used to hone knives.

The composition of slate is mainly of quartz and muscovite (a mica), often along with biotite, chlorite, and hematite, or, less frequently, apatite, graphite, magnetite, kaolin, tournaline, or zircon.


I personally would go for it if you wanted it.....however, all the slate I have ever had in my tanks has been picked up from the side of the road or from the garden......given a good clean with a stiff brush...and plonked into the tank...

Good luck..

 

[celaeno]

I personally would go for it if you wanted it

you would go for something that could potentially harm or kill the fish?

 

[Ava_Banana]

I personally would go for it if you wanted it

you would go for something that could potentially harm or kill the fish?

no......

I would try to find out where the slate had come from and whether it was tested as "safe for fish".

I would also use my knowledge and experience to determine whether I would use it or not. Fry_lover is doing quite possibly what I would do, in that he would ask people's opinions, I have given my opinion. I have not suggested that he uses it, or that he doesn't use it, I have intimated that if I was happy with it, I would use it.


....hth...

 

[tmack]

The sparkling could well be from some of the components that AvaBanana mentioned - such as particles of quartz or mica, not necessarily iron pyrite.