Can i use gravel purchased from home depot in an freshwater aquarium?
by Aquaboy on Saturday, March 20th, 2010 | 4 Comments
I bought 2 35lb bags of decorative gravel from home depot. No where on the bag does it mention silica.
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Yes, it is fine. However, some trace elements such as copper can hurt other tank mates especially invertebrates.
Cheers,
Justin
Yes you can. All you need to do is thoroughly rinse it out.
I don’t think there’s any requirement for gravel to have its ingredients or chemical makeup on the label. Almost all gravel contains silica, but that isn’t a problem, since mineral silica is not soluble in water. The glass of your aquarium (which is also largely silica) will actually dissolve faster, which is to say, in several tens of thousands of years.
Most of the gravel I’ve seen at Home Depot is all right for aquarium use in terms of its mineral content. The problem I have with it is that the particle size of the gravel is generally too large to use for an aquarium substrate. This depends somewhat on what kind of fish you plan to keep, though.
On the other hand, the sand I’ve gotten at Home Depot was too fine to use in an aquarium– fine sand will usually compact, trap rotting debris, and make a stinking mess.
Sand or gravel from Home Depot and similar places will probably contain a great deal of dirt and dust, which you will need to wash out thoroughly so it won’t cloud your tank.
My favorite gravel for aquarium use is actually #0 blasting sand, which is sold in the construction industry. It’s rather fine-grained for gravel, but the grains are bigger than sand grains.
Umm.. Silica is what you want, but thats what most rocks are made of.
Only thing you need to watch is Limestone (calcium carbonate). It may mess with your tanks pH and water hardness.
To test for limetone, drop some vinegar on the rocks. If it bubbles and fizzes, then it’s limestone. Good for a marine tank or African ciclids, not so good for Amazon species.
No bubbling – it’s just normal rocks, give it a wash and use it.
95% of the time a rock is just a rock, and will be safe in a fish tank.
Ian