4 comments to “Why can’t I put saltwater shells in a freshwater fish tank? How can I make it so I can?”

1. Tara C wrote:
   25. March 2008 at 6:46 am :

   it raises the ph in the water im not sure if boiling the hell out of it will help

2. Jack the Wong wrote:
   27. March 2008 at 5:20 pm :

   You can’t because the salt, calcium, nutrients etc will dissolve little by little into your freshwater. This will harden your water, and is no good for freshwater tank.

   Try putting some vinegar on the shell. If you see some mini-bubbling sound/reaction, then it’s not good for freshwater.

   I dont’ know any true solution to this tho.

   hope this helps

   —————–
   additional comments:

   oh i forgot to ask you what type of fish are in there. If they are fish that generally require higher PH, then that shell is fine, and helps acting like a PH buffer.

3. Ianab wrote:
   29. March 2008 at 8:42 am :

   You can, but be aware it may mess with the hardness and pH of your water.

   If your water is already hard and high pH, and you have fish that can handle that, then it’s not a problem.

   What happens is that a small amount of lime will dissolve from the shells if your pH is low. If the ph/hardness is already high (from lime already dissolved in the water) then nothing happens.

   Ian

4. hide in bush wrote:
   30. March 2008 at 1:51 am :

   If you really want to put saltwater shells in freshwater tank,
   you can first try to make your fish more habit to water with higher pH and a bit salt level,
   then only put in the sea shell.