Tires and fish

Red1313 · June 8th, 2009

This might be an odd question but would rubber tires be safe to put in a tank? Or would they leach chemicals?

Beth1965 · June 8th, 2009

I truly don't know but personally if they've seen roads I wouldn't use em. They're used tires?
Then again, I read somehwhere recently on this site someone wanting to use them in an outside pond (??)
Beth

Red1313 · June 8th, 2009

lol that would be me as well

the pond will likely have a liner though

I was thinking a small tire would be kinda cool as a tank decoration though

ABCDemily · June 9th, 2009

Hmmmm, I think they might leach chemicals, and they're got loads and loads of metal in there, so the rubbber opens up then your fishies fins won't have a good time.

I think that it'd be a good idea, but unless it's 100% natural rubber then I wouldn't. Modern tyres are such ridculous compound of chemicals I have no idea what would be in them...

aquarist48 · June 9th, 2009

Personally I wouldn't risk it. I could be completely off base here but it just doesn't seem like a tire would be healthy for the water or the fish.

Nick G · June 9th, 2009

I know nothing of tyres, but I make ponds out of a material called Butynol over here in NZ. Butynol is a rubber roofing membrane manufactured at the same factory that used to make Dunlop tyres, and it is perfectly safe for fish. I would not tell you that a tyre would be safe, but my guess would be that it is.

mathas · June 9th, 2009

Google seems to indicate that some species (mostly trout) are quite sensitive to "tire water".

Quote:

Rainbow trout fry were exposed to samples of water that had been contaminated by
submersing an automobile tire in 300 litres of water. The "tire water" caused 100 %
mortality in static acute lethality tests, usually within 48 hours. Three other test species
{Daphnia magna, Ceriodaphnia dubia and fathead minnows {PImephales promelas) were
tested but no lethality was observed. Samples of tire water were subjected to benchtop
treatments designed to reduce the toxicity and provide some information about the
properties of the toxicant. Aeration and the additions of acid, base, an anti-oxidant and
a metal chelating agent did not reduce the lethal effects of tire water but activated carbon
completely removed the toxicity.

http://www.archive.org/stream/acutel...auoft_djvu.txt

Quote:

Scrap tires from motor vehicles are used to build artificial
reefs and floating breakwalls in the aquatic environment. The
literature reports that waters with submersed tires can cause
acute lethality to aquatic species, especially rainbow trout.

http://www.bio.net/bionet/mm/bioforu...er/006598.html

Quote:

A laboratory study was conducted to determine if automobile tires immersed in fresh water leach chemicals which are toxic to aquatic biota. Three tire types were examined-tires obtained from a floating tire breakwater, road-worn tires from the same vehicle; and new tires. Whole tires were immersed in 300 L of water (natural groundwater) and subsamples (40 L) of water were removed at 5, 10, 20 and 40 d for use in acute static lethality tests. Overlying water from both new and used tires was lethal to rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) but leachate from used tires was more toxic (96-h LC50s-11.8 to 19.3 %v/v) than leachate from new tires (96-h LC50s-52.1 to 80.4 %v/v)

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=4898969

If one species can be sensitive, others can. Would "tire water" be lethal to the species you're planning to keep? I doubt anyone knows (unless you're planning on a trout pond

), but there's at least some risk.

Red1313 · June 9th, 2009

Hmm... I was thinking that it might be sort of cute for a goldfish tank... could the tires be coated with anything? I've read that they use old tires as artificail reefs and that since the tires were coated with growth in time no chemicals leaked... would there be something that could work?

mathas · June 9th, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Red1313

Hmm... I was thinking that it might be sort of cute for a goldfish tank... could the tires be coated with anything? I've read that they use old tires as artificail reefs and that since the tires were coated with growth in time no chemicals leaked... would there be something that could work?

There might be! I'd have no idea what, but me not knowing about something doesn't preclude it's existence

And really, all the studies that Google returned in the few minutes I looked spoke about trout and other wild, North American river fish/invertebrates. Maybe domesticated goldfish can tolerate whatever it is that wild trout cannot

Red1313 · June 9th, 2009

Oh the myrid evil possibilities that MTS leaps upon...

Thanks for the google help mathas

I'll look into it somemore and see if I can find anything definitive.

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