Beginner-Can I put beach glass in my tank?

[BrooklynCritter]

Hi! I'm new to keeping supershrimp, and after one failed attempt (lessons learned, for sure), I have about 30 shrimp in a one gallon jar with some black sand, marimo balls, a piece of cholla wood, and sea fan. I'm really delighted with how these guys look, and I feel like it might be a little crowded in the set-up I have now, so I have another jar getting ready to transfer some shrimp to once it cycles a bit.

My question is about putting things in the tank as decoration. I have a lot of great shells and sea glass that I've collected from a beach near me, but, being that I'm in the Northeast, I am concerned that they may harbor chemicals or bacteria that would be harmful to the shrimp or the ecosystem. If I boiled pieces of shell or glass harvested from the wild, would that be a reasonable way to make them safe for my shrimp? Or is there another way I could treat them?

Thanks for your advice!

[JennyPenny]

Glass is pretty inert (glass jars can even be sterilized for canning by boiling for 20 minutes). There should be no problem adding it to your tank after rinsing and boiling.
I have a pretty snail shell a friend brought me from Australia. I boiled it and it's been fine in the tank for nearly a year now. Just scrub the shells and rinse them before adding to your cycling tank. I would give the new tank a good 1-2 months before adding shrimp. Once everything is set up and decor added, leave it alone and let it do it's thing. That said, some shells, especially snail shells, can not be completely cleaned out of organic matter. I tried cycling sea shells in a container of brackish water to see if they would be safe for my shrimp. After about 2 months, I gave up on them as the ammonia levels were still dangerously high.
On a side note, I would remove the Cholla wood. It can lower the pH of the tank, which is not optimal for these shrimp. Cholla is best for freshwater shrimp.

[BrooklynCritter]

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated! I will pull the cholla wood out and find something else for them to hang out on, and will think about the shell situation. I grabbed shells from the beach that looked like they would provide good hiding places, but my concern was that those same hiding places would be hard to really clean out, so it does seem like I might need to put them aside to cycle for bit, and then see how the water is doing.