Travertine for Bare Bottom?

underwaterfirefighter · Feb 19, 2012

My wife and I are going to be setting up a 150 gal soon and are thinking of going bare bottom. Being in the tile industry I have lots of leftover tile on hand and thought the natural stone look of travertine would be nice on the tank bottom instead of starboard. The question is whether or not there is anything that could leach out of the stone and be detrimental to water quality? Thanks for any info you may have.

sprinklerdudes · Feb 19, 2012

I have used travertine for frag plugs, sounds like a travertine floor would look pretty cool

underwaterfirefighter · Feb 19, 2012

Thanks for the response. I think it would look pretty cool and somewhat natural. So you have had no ill effects from using it?

underwaterfirefighter · Feb 19, 2012

Anyone else have suggestions?

flyfish4trout · Feb 19, 2012

I would say it depends on where your travertine is from. Travertine is carbonate rock and may be associated with hot springs and caves. From a geochemical perspective is is common to find other elements besides calcium carbonates. If was formed due to hot springs there could be a host of other minerals in the rock, for instance brown banding is sometimes reflective of high iron content. Here is an example from Yellowstone.

Average chemical composition of travertine from Mammoth Hot Springs (table 4)
[SIZE=-1][Average of ten analyses reported by Clarke (1904)][/SIZE]

[TABLE="align: center"]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 3"]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: center"]Chemical
constituent[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]Chemical
formula[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]Percentage
composition
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 3"]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Silica[/TD]
[TD]SiO₂[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]0.15[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Aluminum oxide[/TD]
[TD]Al₂O₃[/TD]
[TD="align: right"].15[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Iron oxide[/TD]
[TD]Fe₂O₃[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Calcium oxide[/TD]
[TD]CaO[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]54.20[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Magnesium oxide[/TD]
[TD]MgO[/TD]
[TD="align: right"].46[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Potassium oxide[/TD]
[TD]K₂O[/TD]
[TD="align: right"].20[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Sodium oxide[/TD]
[TD]Na₂O[/TD]
[TD="align: right"].18[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Water[/TD]
[TD]H₂O[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]1.22[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Sodium chloride[/TD]
[TD]NaCl[/TD]
[TD="align: right"].25[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Potassium chloride[/TD]
[TD]KCl[/TD]
[TD="align: right"].08[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Sulfur trioxide
[/TD]
[TD]SO₃[/TD]
[TD="align: right"].89[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Carbon dioxide[/TD]
[TD]CO₂[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]42.25[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Organic carbon[/TD]
[TD]C (organic)[/TD]
[TD="align: right"].20[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Organic hydrogen[/TD]
[TD]H (organic)[/TD]
[TD="align: right"].02

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD] Total[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD="align: right"]100.25
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
I would say use at your own risk.

underwaterfirefighter · Feb 19, 2012

That is interesting. Most of what I use comes from Turkey and looks very similar to limestone. Thanks for the reply.

Russellaqua · Feb 19, 2012

The Mammoth Springs example is actually a very pure limestone, being 96% calcium carbonate (add the calcium oxide and carbon dioxide values.) Travertine, when deposited hydrothermally, can be laden with less innocuous things, like uranium-bearing minerals and some phosphates. It would look nice, but try it on a small scale before going to a big display tank. In general, the whiter the travertine, the closer to being 100% calcium carbonate it is.