Can you decorate a freshwater aquarium with gems and crystals?
by Aquaboy on Saturday, March 6th, 2010 | 3 Comments
Ok this may be a silly question, but can I decorate my aquarium with a few large stones? One is a polished geode the size of a baseball, and the other is a quarts crystal structure the size of a large fist. I also have a lot of polished stones I would like to place around. I want to know if the water with all the chemicals will damage or ruin the look of my stones (some were very expensive) or if the stones (the polished ones) could harm my fish.
Thanks! 
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As long as you’ve cleaned the objects properly, and made sure they’re made from a non-toxic material, there should be no problem. Just don’t put in anything that looks like food or is small enough for the fish to swallow. Disinfect with boiling water for 10 minutes, that should do it.
i wouldnt… just because the geo thing is sharp and can easlily scratch the fish…but if you realy want to then you must boil them in hot water for 15 minutes
The crystals should be fine, but I am not sure on the geode so I would leave it out. Many geodes have an outer limestone layer and limestone can alter your pH.
Crystals, quartz, and onyx are all perfectly safe in the aquarium.
There could be a calcium or mineral deposit build up that can form on the rocks, so if you do not want the rocks to get covered in algae and deposits, do not put them in the tank, but generally you can just polish them again and restore them to their original sheen if some deposit or algae grew on them. The polish is not like a chemical polish but is a sanding of the stone for a polished finish, usually accomplished using a tumbler. Most the times the rocks come out of the aquarium just fine, without any alteration. Sometimes algae is onthem and cleaning them in hot water or vinegar is enough to ge tthem clean again.