Stone tile

Bdeck · Oct 5, 2021

Has anyone ever used old scrap marble or limestone tiles in there aquarium. I have scrap pieces if keystone coralstone from a project and would like to throw it in my sump. Any thoughts? Its quarried from south florida.

Timfish · Oct 5, 2021

Limestone and the coralstone should be fine but marble can have metals that would potentially be detrimental.

Bdeck · Oct 6, 2021

I've been leaning towards it should be fine. However my concerns would be bleach or other chemicals to get the stone white. With that said I'm under the impression that bleach and other chemicals will dissipate if left outside in the sun..... any thoughts on that?

Timfish · Oct 6, 2021

Cut limestone or coral rock is pretty white but hosing it off and leaving it out in the sun for a few days should get rid of any bleach is it was used.

Aqua Man · Oct 6, 2021

Bdeck said:
I've been leaning towards it should be fine. However my concerns would be bleach or other chemicals to get the stone white. With that said I'm under the impression that bleach and other chemicals will dissipate if left outside in the sun..... any thoughts on that?

I’d let soak in RODI for awhile before putting it in my tank.

Bdeck · Oct 6, 2021

Thanks for the replies. I've looked into in the past and it seems okay, but no definitive answer. Hoping to reuse/reperpose material (frag plugs too). Ill update in a couple months on my findings. Cheers

Eagle_Steve · Oct 6, 2021

Bdeck said:
Has anyone ever used old scrap marble or limestone tiles in there aquarium. I have scrap pieces if keystone coralstone from a project and would like to throw it in my sump. Any thoughts? Its quarried from south florida.

somehwere under all of the rock in my 180 are pieces exactly like you have. When I lived in S. Florida, we redid some things outside and I had scraps left over. Here is what I did.

Soaked in a bleach bath for a day, then soaked in RODI for a few hours, rinsed with hose and let air dry for 2 days. Started to cycle it and then tested PO4 for whatever reason and it was nuts. So I then did a light acid bath to remove some of the PO4 and it also cleaned the rock out really well. The water after the acid bath was nasty. I guess there was still organic matter in the pores that the bleach did nothing about.

If I was to do it again, and sure I will when we move back to FL in a few years, I would do the acid bath from the start, rinse really well and then let air dry in the sun for a few days. It will amaze you at what comes out of the pores of the mined stuff.

Outside of that, there is no issues with using it. Just make sure it is clean.

Side note. These make great bases for making negative space aquascapes. You can hide the bases under the sand and they can be large enough to support crazy structures.

Bdeck · Oct 6, 2021

Eagle_Steve said:
somehwere under all of the rock in my 180 are pieces exactly like you have. When I lived in S. Florida, we redid some things outside and I had scraps left over. Here is what I did.

Soaked in a bleach bath for a day, then soaked in RODI for a few hours, rinsed with hose and let air dry for 2 days. Started to cycle it and then tested PO4 for whatever reason and it was nuts. So I then did a light acid bath to remove some of the PO4 and it also cleaned the rock out really well. The water after the acid bath was nasty. I guess there was still organic matter in the pores that the bleach did nothing about.

If I was to do it again, and sure I will when we move back to FL in a few years, I would do the acid bath from the start, rinse really well and then let air dry in the sun for a few days. It will amaze you at what comes out of the pores of the mined stuff.

Outside of that, there is no issues with using it. Just make sure it is clean.

Side note. These make great bases for making negative space aquascapes. You can hide the bases under the sand and they can be large enough to support crazy structures.

Thanks a bunch for the real world experience. I'm wondering if the dirty water was just the calcium carbonate being eaten by the acid...? I plan to take a Rubbermaid and cycle it with the keystone coralstone and see what happens. If I have to ill acid wash it..... last resort. Also going to wash it in a 35% hydrogen peroxide mix.