Saltwater shells for a freshwater tank.

[Superfly724]

I've been doing a lot of reading and have been getting some mixed reviews on the subject. I went to the beach last week and found a cool little shell shop. I went inside and found a lot of really cool shells that are perfect for my shell-dwelling cichlids. Some were found locally in Florida, and some of the shells the guy ordered. One of the main reasons people speak against it is because it could raise the pH in the tank, but for a Tanganyikan tank I don't see that as much of an issue. So after soaking these shells for a good long while and then blanching them, do you folks think they could be freshwater safe, or is there a bigger issue behind adding them?

[Cory1990]

I thought the shells were a problem because they were made with calcium. And I was told not to put them in my tank. Although I have some pretty cool ones that we got in Florida on a vacation that sit in my closet now. So I'd like to also know why you can't put them in the tank.

[emc7]

You want natural shells in a Tang. tank. They will raise kH and gH, but that's is desirable as Lake Tanganyika is something like pH 9 and so hard that shells gather a crust rather than dissolve. Ocean shells are fine if they are clean and not painted or varnished. You can get shells from tang, but they are pricey. I've used shell-store shells, shells from online stores, pet stores and, most recently escargot shells. Escargot shells are already clean, the right size for multies and readily available for wantabe french chefs.

[Superfly724]

I've got a large amount of escargot shells in there now that I ordered off of Ebay. Some guy in England was importing them from France and selling them as shell-dweller shells at like 50 cents a piece with really cheap shipping. Not sure if he's still doing it. But the ones I got are all natural. Or at least appear to be. None of them are painted or anything like that. I picked only the ones that look like snail shells, since I know that's what they use at the bottom of the lake. But my Brevis are about full size and the pairs have trouble squeezing both bodies inside the escargot shells, so the ones I picked are all larger.

[Cory1990]

I have fake shells in my 10g community tank. Since I was told real shells were a no go I ordered small plastic ones from online. My only downside was that the tank had ich and a few of them are dyed completely blue from it :/

[lohachata]

real shells are not good for a community tank with south american and many asian and west african fish....but they are just fine for rift lake species...that is all the wife and i use for most of our rift lake fish..
people....check your local craft stores for some great deals on awesome shells of all sizes...

[Cory1990]

That's where I got a BIG bag of smaller plastic ones. They cost me about $10 and I had so many that I ended up throwing away half the bag. Now that mine all all stained blue I wish I didn't.

I got them from hobby lobby. Didn't see any big ones though.

Also so people don't get mixed up I had med/small ones from online and tiny ones from hobby lobby