Beach Finds

[Stephen]

Does anyone out there know of any little beach finds that would be safe to put in my 55 gallon fish only tank? Any ideas would be appriciated.

[Zack]

not to much... for the reason of chemicles and stuff.

[MJC]

Stephen,

That would depend, perhaps, on what those finds were. If they were snail shells and you can't see behind the curl (sorry, dont know of the proper term), it's probably best to avoid it or to sterilize it to be safe.

I've found and taken large pieces of broken coral stems (e.g., staghorn) when we were in Maui and placed it in my tank after sterilizing (soak in a solution of water and bleach). When you think about it, the decorative coral colonies they sell are prepared in the same fashion.

Occassionaly you'll find pieces of kelp or other floating vegetation, washed up on the beach. I'm not sure it it's compatibility in a closed environment.

There's some folks who use natural sea water and I've heard of others scooping some sand and adding it into their tank.

hope this helps,

Marty