Sandstone shelf

[Brandon]

Working on a shelf/cave idea.

anyone know if sandstone is aquarium safe?

[Levi_Aquatics]

I belive it is sefe for fish but it might change water parameters or cloud the water. I would suggest pouring vinegar on the rock and if it has any sort of reaction I wouldnt use it and try a different rock.

[Guppy Guy]

I agree with @Levi_Aquatics . Drip a little vinegar or nitrate test kit drops on the rock, and If it bubbles at all, don’t use it. Be careful with sandstone though, since it is a soft rock, it may fall apart in the water, and I would not be surprised if it clouds water.

[Brandon]

No reaction from the nitrate drop test.

Looks pretty cool too.

may also try a different  type of stone.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

That's a great hide for corys or other bottom dwelling species. Never seen anyone do this, thanks for the post!

[Flumpweesel]

Looks really good, I've seen towns made out of sandstone so it should last a fair while

[Gator]

@Brackon; I've had Sandstone in all of my tanks for years, I've never had any problems from it. To find out if a piece of Sandstone is going to fall apart in your tank, try to break it with your hands, if it breaks, find one that doesn't.  As @Flumpweesel states, I've seen a lot of buildings in a lot of towns made of Sandstone, sometimes entire cities. If you go onto google maps, you can look for a town called Harpers Ferry, WV and switch to satellite view, zero in on a railroad bridge over the Potomac River. This RR bridge was built out of Sandstone in the Roman Gothic style by the B&O RR in 1850 and is still in use today by the C&O RR. There are several RR bridges all across the US made of Sandstone that are still in use.

Don't put just any rock in your tank, Limestone will raise your pH, Quartz is OK, I have a Quartz rock about 3 inches long by 2 inches wide I found that has a 22K vein of gold running through it, looks great.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@GatorI have used obsidian and agate as well with no pH fluctuations. 

@Brandonwhat did you use to secure it to the bottom/into the substrate. 

[Levi_Aquatics]

That looks like a really cool in the water!

[Brandon]

On 1/3/2022 at 8:02 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

@GatorI have used obsidian and agate as well with no pH fluctuations. 

@Brandonwhat did you use to secure it to the bottom/into the substrate. 

Nothing.

pretty sturdy as is and I have it leaning on the back glass slightly.

[Gator]

@Brandon; My father's sister married a full-blooded Cherokee who used obsidian to make arrowheads and spearheads, those arrowheads and spearheads were extremely sharp. I believe that obsidian would be like lava rock, it would have too many naturally sharp edges for an aquarium, Agate on the other hand might look cool. My uncle was a high-ranking game warden in his state, so I guess he was making the arrowheads and spearheads to gift to his co-workers, but what do I know? 

Your shelf idea is great, I did something similar back in the '80's using a piece of slate I had found while following a deer trail in the Appalachian Mountains, my Jack Demsey's took to it immediately when I got it home.

Your shelf idea is great, I'm positive it's going to work out very well for you, look for more Sandstone, build a massive shelf system that will rival any prefab shelf system you can buy, place some slate in your shelf system for good measure. Your end result will be a shelf system with lots of nooks and crannies to hide in and maybe even lay eggs.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Agate in my frog tank.