Are real gemstones ok for decor?

[CindyJ]

My 6 year old son came home from a visit with his daddy with real gemstones he got from the zoo. He got to dig and sift through dirt and rocks and now he wants to put those gemstones in the fish tank.

They are aventurine, quartz, peridot, ruby, rose quartz, crystal, saphire, obsidian, smokey quartz, moon stone, amethyst, emerald, fluorite, sodalite, pyrite and finally calcite.

Most of these chunks are about the size of an olive or bigger and don't really have any sharp edges. Will any of these be safe to put in our fish tank?

We have a 20 gal tank with 3 neon tetra and 3 dwarf gouramis.

Thanks

 

[Chief_waterchanger]

Pyrite, calcite, and flourite are the only no-no's you listed. Pyrite is a metal. Metals are bad to have in the tanks. Flourite and calcite are both dissolveables. That means they will dissolve completely overtime and raise your hardness and possibly your alkalinity.

 

[Dino]

Welcome to the site!!

We keep several of the above stones as well as several other gem stones, in our tanks.

One of the coolest is a 5 pound aquamarine crystal.

 

[CindyJ]

I had a feeling that those would be the bad ones. Thank you so much for the very quick help and the welcomes!!! Have a Happy New Year!

Cindy

 

[Dino]

Glad to help out.

 

[susitna-flower]

Welcome to FISHLORE, Cindy. You will find lots of great help here, we especially love pictures, so when you put those in, let us see how they look!

 

[King_Snuggles]

Wow I should have thought of that. I had pirite in my tank. All my fish died and I didn't know why, now I do. poor beta. I have some others in and they look really cool, its a neat idea.

 

[CindyJ]

I'm so glad I found this place. We have a few local pet stores and 2 of them are the big chains and so many employees and not much knowledge.

What size should the photo be?

And it figures the biggest stones are the ones that I can't put in the tank. But the ones I can put in will look really nice. My son is big into pirates. So he will be glad to be able to put his treasure in to the tank.

I will deffinately keep coming back here when I have questions.

 

[COBettaCouple]

Sounds great! I want to do a tank with a "treasure" type theme next year, using crystals and other safe gemstones.

I think a pic can be up to 488k.

Welcome to FishLore!

 

[CindyJ]

Another question or two. How do I post a picture? And sodalite is ok to put in?

 

[COBettaCouple]

When you do a message, there should be an option to "Attach Files" by clicking on a "Manage Attachments" button below the message box area.

Sodalite is a mineral of sodium aluminum silicate with chlorine so my guess is that it wouldn't be good for a tank, but Dino knows more about that so I'd wait for his opinion on it.

Another question or two. How do I post a picture? And sodalite is ok to put in?

 

[Barbrella]

I've kept large chunks of amethyst in my tanks for 15 years with no problem!

 

[CindyJ]

:;pirateI know my photo skills aren't the best. It was kind of hard to get a good pic with the actual fish in it also. But anyway my son is very happy and I thank you all for your help. Have a great and Happy New Year!!! And once again another question.

Can you think of any other (remember my son is 6) COLORFUL FISH than will go with the neon tetra and dwarf gouramis. He would love to have a clown fish (nemo), but I think a salt water tank is a bit much for our budget. He and me too love the brightly colored fish.

I try to research which fish will be ok together and sometimes find conflicting info between the net and the pet stores.

 

[MudHog]

Here are my stones. All are from my personal collection, except for the slag glass which was bought.

 

[Dino]

The sodalite slipped by me.
I would skip placing it in an aquarium.

 

[Drea]

What a cute tank, love the pirate theme, you took good pics too!:;juan

 

[CindyJ]

Thanks everybody!!

 

[COBettaCouple]

Remember the stores (and some online sources) are out to sell. That's why I love FishLore and other good sites that aren't about selling, but just exchanging information between fish keepers.

If you haven't already done so, I'd recommend that you start a new thread on it. You'll get plenty of opinions. ;D

3 neon tetras & 3 gourami, right? 3 more neons would be good and put you at 9" of neons and 9" of gourami.. 18" of the 20" available with that tank. Those fish don't put out a ton of waste so you could go over 20" a little. Perhaps a trio of another small tetra? I'm not sure. I'd be tempted to just go to 7 neons and let the tank stand at that.

I try to research which fish will be ok together and sometimes find conflicting info between the net and the pet stores.

 

[CindyJ]

Thank you, Thank you! But there is one common pleco too. So I guess I'm done. This is a great place for info! Thanks to all!!

 

[COBettaCouple]

You'll want to look for a new home for the common pleco before too long. They grow to almost 2' and put out LOTS of waste, 55-75g is the minimum tank size for them. A bristlenose pleco is much smaller and would fit in your tank.

 

[CindyJ]

I talked to my smaller local fish store and the said they would take my common pleco as a donation. But that's fine with me. They do have the bristlenose pleco. I wish they would do store credit towards the other pleco. But no big deal at least he'll have more room than my 20 gal. Thanks again for all the advice!