quartz crystals in aquarium and pH?

[jedicat]

so i decided it was time for wicket to move to a bigger and better home. i got him a 3 gallon (i also got wedge a 3 gallon, woohoo!) and a plant and a hideyhole.

i also found this nice bag of light blue (they claim the pigment used contains no lead or chrome....) quartz crystals at the fish store that i wanted to use as ground cover. since i've never used quartz before, i decided to test if it would change the pH. so i put it in the bowl, added 1/2 a gallon of water, and let it sit for an hour. the water was originally 7.0, but after an hour with the quartz, it went up to 7.2. i also tried the vinegar test on some other crystals from the bag (they didn't fizz.) i haven't moved him in yet, as i'm unsure if it's safe to. i mean, i can bring the pH down, but will it go back up after water changes? what kind of stuff in the quartz would make the pH go up?

has anyone here had experience using quartz crystals as ground cover, and if so, how'd it go?

[Jenny]

I don;'t know anything about what would cause the ph change, but I don't think that small of one would harm the betta. First I would test to make sure it doesn't change any further. If not then, I would start acclimating the fish to the new ph, maybe a quarter of the new ph water at a time. After you are done this, he should be fine with it. You will just need to have some of the quartz in the aging water to get it the same ph.

Bettas are not particularly sensitive to ph, but they do need a constant one. They will be more stressed out by a sudden change in phs than they would be staying in a less that perfect one (unless it is extreme, of course).

[jedicat]

ok, so i added some more of the water to the tank at intervals, and by the time it was full, it was at 7.0. 12 hours later, it was still at 7.0

so i added more and more of the new water to wicket's old bowl (it was the same pH and temperature, but i just wanted to make sure he'd be ok) and last night, i transferred him to the new bowl.

as of now, the pH is the same, and he's much more active than he was in the gallon bowl. he hasn't checked out his hideyhole, but he LOVES sitting in the leaves of the silk plant i got for him.

thanks for your help!

[ana]

maybe the slight rise was something external on the crystals that wasnt removed during cleaning. they sound pretty, are they smooth? ive never seen them, though now i would really like to

[jedicat]

that's very possible. the bag said to rinse them in cold water (i'm assuming it's because they're colored), so i didn't do my usual scalding, but i did scrub them with the soft side of a new sponge (one of those cheapie things from dollar stores that are packaged without the use of chemicals...or so i hope...) so it's possible that it might've been something in the damp sponge. i also picked through the quartz and took the prettiest pieces to use in the tank, so my hands were all over the rocks, too (they were clean at the time, but i guess that could have caused a pH increase as well.) i was more worried that the crystals themselves might leech something into the water, but i'm guessing that's not the case, as the pH is stable now. and i did look at websites, and most of them said that common aquarium gravel is made up mostly of quartz anyway.

they're smooth. there were bits of the quartz in there that were opaque white and rough, and other smaller bits that looked like mica. i figured they'd be ok to use, but i removed them anyway (before i cleaned the ones that went into his bowl.)

it looks gorgeous in his tank, although it's too early to say whether or not i recommend using it.

[ana]

id really love to know when youve used them for a bit if you recommend them, i have some tanks that i hate the gravel colour in and id like to replace them with something different

[jedicat]

after using it for a few days with no huge problems, i guess it's safe to use, but it requires a lot of work.

the crystals are all different sizes...some are as large as a betta's head, and others are tiny little chips that they could eat, if you don't pick them out beforehand. even the largest crystals are very lightweight, so they move around a lot when pouring new water in or moving the bowl, and that is pretty frustrating. also, wicket and the blue guy occasionally "scour" the bottom, and push the crystals around with their mouths (the ones i put in there are too big to be eaten.) none of the crystals are sharp, and i don't see any wounds on their faces from it, but i'm still kinda paranoid about it. it is cute, though...it looks like they're trying to build something but i don't know if that's such a good setup for a cycled tank, where there's all sorts of bacteria growing in it.

it would look absolutely wonderful in a live plant-only tank, and it does have the right consistency for that, out of the bag.