Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

Hello Shrimpkeepers

Ive just setup a a ten gal cherry shrimp tank with apple snails with an eheim aquaball filter. I keep a large catfish and discus tank and the cherry shrimp tank is my second tank and something a bit different. im just interested is there any obvious types of rocks that you cant use in an aquarium with shrimp. i would like to use granite if possible and i have another rock with i think is some type of quatzs mix but im not sure. my tank is going to be a lightly planted tank java fern and moss and an anubias nana. does anyone keep ricca in there tank also.

Thanks for any help ben

p.s great site realy informative if you want to keep shrimp.

Costatus7 wrote:Hello Shrimpkeepers

Ive just setup a a ten gal cherry shrimp tank with apple snails with an eheim aquaball filter. I keep a large catfish and discus tank and the cherry shrimp tank is my second tank and something a bit different. im just interested is there any obvious types of rocks that you cant use in an aquarium with shrimp. i would like to use granite if possible and i have another rock with i think is some type of quatzs mix but im not sure. my tank is going to be a lightly planted tank java fern and moss and an anubias nana. does anyone keep ricca in there tank also.

Thanks for any help ben

p.s great site realy informative if you want to keep shrimp.

Welcome to the Shrimp Hobby! Sounds like you are off to a good start. I have heard that limestone is a bad idea for a shrimp tank I don't really know about granite and quartz though. I think they also said marble is ano no. But I think you'll get some better answers from the other members, I am still a newbie in the shrimp scene

Quartz and quartzite is fine. Most granites are OK except those that have heavy metals like uranium in them as many do. Shrimp are very sensitive to heavy metals and many granites have uranium, thoorium and lead in measurable amounts, so I would stay clear of them unless you have a way to test.

If you are raising shrimp that like hard water, most rocks like slate and coral are fine. If you are going to have acid loving shrimp, stay away from carbonate rocks. Slaye often has a lot of carbonate in it and coral is pure carbonate rock.

Limestone rocks are good and generally safe, but they will buffer the pH above 7.0, so they are out if you want an acidic tank.

RCSGuy wrote: I have heard that limestone is a bad idea for a shrimp tank I don't really know about granite and quartz though. I think they also said marble is ano no. But I think you'll get some better answers from the other members, I am still a newbie in the shrimp scene

RCSguy, you really do not want to talk about things that you "heard" here or there as it always amounts to speculation. You should only post if you have made personal experiences with the topic discussed or have verifiable sources (preferably scientific instead of "so and so said") for the information you are presenting. Speculation is the last thing we want in this forum. There is more than enough of that going on in other forums already. It's always a good idea to only post if you can actually contribute to the topic. This way the "noise" in the forum will be kept at a minimum.

Up until recently, I had slate (at least I think it's slate) in my RCS tank. I think it was causing problems because it contained iron (I saw rust appearing). I'll have to wait and see if my RCS start reproducing again to know if it was the slate's fault.

Hi Costatus7 and welcome

Guybrush, thanks for sharing your experience. Yes, rust is a good way to tell that there is iron present! Please let us know how the RCS do.

Thanks.

I've used slate with what looked to be rust stains and have had no issues with it. I'm no expert, but I don't think plain old iron oxide is much of an issue. Other forms of iron may be harmfull, but I have not had issues with rust.

Most of my "caves" for my snails and shrimp were slate and I had no losses to speak of out the ordinary.

Mustafa, do you have information on the effects of iron oxide?

badflash wrote: Mustafa, do you have information on the effects of iron oxide?

I've done some research on the solubility of iron in water and it seems like that it's pretty hard to keep iron in water. It usually binds with something and settles. That's why the planted tank people have to dose iron so much...not necessarily because the plants eat it up like crazy, but because it settles out of the water column pretty quickly.

I would stay on the safe side and not put a chunk of iron in your tank ( ) but if a rock has some iron in it, I don't *think* it would be all that consequential. I did have a few pebbles with some rust on them (they were in the "river gravel" I had purchased from Home Depot) and it did not affect my macros that were housed in that tank. I have no idea how a large rock with lots of rust would affect a tank. As I said, iron does not stay in the water column all that easily but to be on the safe side I would not leave large chunks of rust in a shrimp tank. A high iron content *bound* in a rock or gravel *should* be ok, though, although I have obviously not done any long term testing on its affects myself.

hello shrimpkeepers

Thanks for the welcome and the great info, im pretty sure from back at school that to test for lime you can add vinager and if it bubles and fizzes it probably contains lime. i think the rock is marble so im going to test it. have got plenty of slate but want somthing more rounded than flat in the tank.

thanks again ben

Be sure to keep us updated on the results, and best wishes.

Marble is not a good choice. It disolves too quickly and will raise the pH too high.