i brought some shells and rock from the beach..i own a home aquarium of fresh water...how do i clean them and make them smell nice since they smell like nasty sea water??/... i boiled them but dont know how to really treat that smell and 2 take out the saltyness..please help me
Answers:
It isn鈥檛 a matter of how well you鈥檝e cleaned them but much moreso about what the shells will do to the ph levels in your water. Shells are made of calcium and will increase the hardness of your water, which, in and of itself, is not necessarily a terrible thing. Fish can handle a wider range of ph levels than charts ideally recommend; however, it is the fluctuation in those levels which creates problems and if you can avoid increasing hardness when you don鈥檛 need to, it鈥檚 better not to.
DONT WASH IT WITH SOAP. If you do that them you may not be able to get the soap out and then you wont be able to put it in. This is what my uncle did. He let it dry out in the sun then he washed it. Most of the salt and stuff came out. It wont hurt you fish if 1 grain of salt gets in the tank. If this doesnt help go to your local pets store and ask them how.
try soaking them in hot water put a whole box of baking soda in it let it soak for about an hour or two then drain water and let saok in the sun
I would say to wash them in vinegar and rinse really really well and let them dry in the sun. Then add them to a bucket of water and wait overnight. In the morning check the water levels in the bucket. You mainly want to check the ph levels. Some rocks and shells will totally mess up your ph levels (no matter how good you wash them). If the ph levels are comparable to what's in your tank then you should be ok with adding them in at that point.
Hi Ecko, I would advise against putting shells in your tank. Besides the obvious hygiene issues they are calcium so they may increase your pH with disastrous results.
soak them in hot water and avoid using soap because it has those chemicals that might kill your fish
Shells are usually not a good idea unless you already have a saltwater tank set up with lots of filtration. The calcium and salt content in the shells can wreak havoc on your freshwater tank, (even a saltwater one if you don't know how much the parameters are going to change) even if you do soak them in hot water and all that other stuff. If you want shells in a freshwater tank I highly recommend finding some fake ones to add.
