Im new and got a question about rock please help

[berad001]

Hey, first off I am new to the board. I am down in the gulf of mexico on vacation and I am seeing alot of great rock on the beach. At home I have a 100 gallon tank that I want to build up with some nice base rock before I invest in the nice top rocks. So I wanna take some of this rock home but I dont know if its going to be safe in my take. What it looks like is pretty much a bunch of shells suspended in rock. Its a very light color. I have about 30 pounds I wanna take back home with me to add into my take. Will this be safe in my tank?? Any help would be great

 

[yoda9216]

I don't know how safe/unsafe it is, but is it legal? Some places won't let you harvest rock. That would be my first concern.

 

[berad001]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Gerry S.:
<strong>I don't know how safe/unsafe it is, but is it legal? Some places won't let you harvest rock. That would be my first concern.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Yeah I checked into that. There are limits. I think I am ok

 

[yoda9216]

In that case, you should be okay- as long as temperature and salinity are fairly close to your tank conditions. Mexico should be fairly warm water though. My buddy, against my advice, added rock he collected up here (MD) to his tropicla tanl- the resultant die-off and subsequent plankton bloom wrecked his system.

 

[Bookworm]

Near-shore coastal waters are frequently loaded with pollutants that can wreak havoc in a closed system. Furthermore, signs of pollution are not always obvious. Having said that, I did maintain a 55 gallon tank in high school that was stocked exclusively with critters caught in the grass flats outside Ft. Desoto Park, FL. Quite a bit of water and bits of debris from this area made it into my tank with no ill effect despite being adjacent to a busy causeway, and a bunch of luxury condos. However, a mangrove thicket/mud flat has a tremendous capacity for filtering contaminants compared to your typical sandy beach.