manufactured stone safe in aquarium

[aulonocaraaddict]

Is manufactured stone safe in an aquarium? Should it be sealed with anything. There is several different styles and you could use it to make diy backgrounds and caves. I know cement needs to be cured and raises ph. What do you guys think?

[aulonocaraaddict]

I went by and the place gave me 2 pieces of stone. One with and one without coloring (iorn oxide which is cement pigment). I am going to put them in 5 gallon buckets with air pumps to keep the water circulation going and test the ph. How would I test for the other elements that could leach. What else should I look for?

[mewickham]

Cement can raise pH, general hardness (dH), and carbonate hardness (KH). The real question is if they've added any kind of mildew protectants or poisonous dyes. Arsenic is commonly used in products for mildew protection, but I have no idea if it's used in artificial stone. I have no clue what might be included in any dyes or colorants. I doubt iron oxide would be a problem unless in large quantities.

My _guess_ is that the stone would be safe, aside from messing with pH and hardness.

[aulonocaraaddict]

I need to talk to them about the way they make them. I know they use portland cement but what else I'm not sure. I'll check with them and let you guys know.

[aulonocaraaddict]

I talked to them and they don't use anything for mildew/mold. They use light weight aggregate, portland cement, water, and sand. For coloring they use iorn oxide, water and sand. And then they seal it with a sealer from foxfireusa.net. I will have to look into the sealer a bit. I am going to test the ph and see where its at too.

[aulonocaraaddict]

In about a gallon water apiece, the ph was 8.8. I did a 100% water change and I'm going to watch it over a week or so to see if it lowers and stabilizes.

[mewickham]

One old trick for curing cement ponds was to add some vinegar to the pond (without fish) for a few days. I don't know how well it works, though. I always sealed my cement ponds.

[aulonocaraaddict]

What kind of sealer do you use?

[mewickham]

I used the Thoroseal I mentioned in another thread. It's a thick, cementlike paste that comes in various colors. It's main purpose is as a waterproofing compound.

[aulonocaraaddict]

It got down to a ph of 8 in that little amount of water. One thing I noticed was that the coloring on it came off and all that was left was the original cement color. So I would just use epoxy resin and should be ok. I have also read that the epoxy helps to stabilize water parameters faster.