# Rock question



## chris777 (Jun 27, 2008)

Will these rocks be alright to use? All of them are suppose to be river rocks other then the two flat pieces. I still need to clean them but wanted to double check and make sure if they are alright or not.


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## alicem (Jul 26, 2007)

I'm a little bit concerned about the one with rust stains in the first pict.
It's probably just where it sat against the wire cage on the pallet during shipping.
See if that will scrub off and let's see what the others here say.
Alicem


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## chris777 (Jun 27, 2008)

yea i saw that to. Which it was from the wire cage. When i got it i rubbed my finger on it to see if it would be something i could get off. It came off onto my finger where those rust spots where so figured i could get them off. I have them soaking in a bucket with water and a powerhead in it and am gonna try to scrub it off in a little bit.


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## chris777 (Jun 27, 2008)

I just scrubbed it and got almost all of it off the lines are now very very faint that you have to know what your looking for to see it. I will try to scrub it again here soon.

But other then the one with the rust stain are the others Safe to use?


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## alicem (Jul 26, 2007)

I think they look fine. 
If you got them from a landscape place, I would scrub them really well and use them.

Boil them if you wish, but probably only necessary if you got them from a garden where pesticides or fertilizers were used.
Or from a creek with a questionable water source of if you are worried about bacteria from it.

If you are still worried, you could put them in a bucket of water and let them soak for 24 hrs.
Then test the bucket water and see if the pH, KH or GH changes.

hth
Alicem


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## chris777 (Jun 27, 2008)

I got them from a stoneyard.

They have been sitting in water for past like 7 hours now. Only main thing i was mainly worried about was the rust spot you brought up earlier.


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## xalow (May 10, 2007)

I think they should be fine. Once you get to a point where the amount of rust coming off is barely noticeable its likely to come of into your tank at a rate slower than that since it is not being scrubbed. This way the rust in the tank is too little to bother anything or be enough to discolor the water. Check out the library article on rocks:

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/rock_metals.php

says the following about rust:
"it will not normally present a chemical problem for your fish since the rust, iron oxide, is inert"


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## chris777 (Jun 27, 2008)

Alright thank you.


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