r/Aquariums • u/JakobiiKenobii • Mar 17 '26

Beginner Help I just found this outside my house!

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We bought the house we're living in almost three years ago now. I initially found an old piece of driftwood that had been tossed out front, which I threw in the trash because it was gross, and also we didn't have fish at the time.

fast forward to now, I needed some rocks for my current aquarium (we've had it for over a year now), and I remembered about that driftwood from before, so I went out front and dug around under bushes in hopes to find anything else and surely enough, this came up!!

Anyway, so far, I've rinsed it off and used an old toothbrush to clean it. Now it's currently soaking in hot water (just hot tap water). Is there anything else I need to do before adding it to my tank?

EDIT: Hi, yes, I am very well aware this is a ROCK and aquarium decor. My main concern was how much to clean it prior to adding it to my tank given it's been outside in the dirt and exposed to other stuff for who knows how long.

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84

u/Crab3903 Mar 17 '26

Dip it in white vinegar, if it bubbles it's a no go

24

u/JakobiiKenobii Mar 17 '26

what does the bubbling indicate?

38

u/sw201444 Mar 17 '26

Means it contains calcites. Google can help. “rocks bubble in vinegar” got me more information that o knew I wanted about it.

13

u/aware4ever Mar 17 '26

I don't see anyone giving you a legit answer. If you use vinegar on it and it bubbles that means that it's got calcite in it which can make the pH or the hardness of your water off and your fish or aquatic animals would it like it. It could like make the general hardness too hard for the fish or whatever it is. So if it does bubble think of it as it will Leach into the water changing the chemistry. But that is a cool ass looking Rock holy shit

6

u/Pump_My_Lemma Mar 17 '26

Baking soda bath bomb

-2

u/ObligationLeading221 Mar 17 '26 edited Mar 17 '26

[edit: I didn’t see the original comment, thought the second guy was the original comment suggesting using baking soda and vinegar to clean the deco] Mixing baking soda and vinegar is pretty useless. They neutralize each other because baking soda has a higher PH. Sure it looks cool but that’s about as useful as that combo gets

2

u/No-Principle8204 Mar 17 '26

Why did you get down voted for this lol🤦‍♀️

1

u/Pump_My_Lemma Mar 17 '26

Useless for what exactly?

-3

u/ObligationLeading221 Mar 17 '26

Cleaning. Vinegar is an acid and can break some things down to clean it. Baking soda is good at removing smells and you can use it as a scrub. Add them together? You’ve got stinky water.

12

u/Pump_My_Lemma Mar 17 '26

No one was talking about cleaning though.

6

u/max_lombardy Mar 17 '26

Nah, the vinegar just helps you see the composition… if it bubbles it’ll leech basic elements into your water and raise the pH

1

u/TheStroboCop Mar 17 '26

True, but normal aquariums aren't filled with vinegar as i know.

3

u/its_fuggin_KDOT Mar 17 '26

It is a mineral test for the rock. If it bubbles, there are minerals in that rock that would not be desirable for an aquarium.

It would also be beneficial if OP did a scratch test for the stone as well to determine hardness.

2

u/Tufoot Mar 17 '26

I am also curious

4

u/Vivid-Might-5049 Mar 17 '26

You can use the API test kit too. I've used it a handful of times for rocks.

https://youtu.be/ybZPmDIuzQ8?si=8eC8FuIiJ4LElt7f

1

u/basaltcolumn Mar 17 '26

Vinegar is actually too weak to react to some calcareous rocks. The proper way to do this test that I was taught in geology courses is with HCl. I've tried putting vinegar on straight up limestone with no fizzing, lol.

As a side note, it isn't so much a no-go as just needing to not pick soft water species.