Clay from outside

[Hybridfish7]

My area's soil is pretty much just clay. Red clay, with little rocks that have red stripes mixed in. 2-3 years ago I dug out a garden bed, and took it upon myself to save about 10 lbs of this clay. It has since been dried out and sitting in my storage room. Today I decided to wash it and get some of the rocks out. I am now left with about 10 lbs of clay with the little orangey rocks mixed in. Would you consider this safe to use as a substrate for a fish only tank?

 

[Disturbed.)]

I use clay out of my yard in my planted tanks. Redder the better, more iron. Just spread it on a cookie sheet and put it in the oven at the lowest setting for a couple hours to kill anything that might be lurking in it.
Cap it well with sand or really well with gravel and keep in mind anything that disturbs it will cloud the tank really heavily. Not good on filter motors or the media lol

 

[Hybridfish7]

I use clay out of my yard in my planted tanks. Redder the better, more iron. Just spread it on a cookie sheet and put it in the oven at the lowest setting for a couple hours to kill anything that might be lurking in it.
Cap it well with sand or really well with gravel and keep in mind anything that disturbs it will cloud the tank really heavily. Not good on filter motors or the media lol

I knew it was going to cloud up the tank for awhile but figured it'd settle, I actually wanted to have it on top so the individual cichlid in the tank could do some natural foraging behaviors. You think it'd be fine with just air powered filtration? Also, do you pick out the rocks?

 

[Disturbed.)]

I wouldn't put it in a tank without a cap it's going to immediately dissolve and be EVERYWHERE and clog everything up. I wouldn't put it in a tank with cichlids period. They will make a mess of it. I tried it inside pantyhose and hydroponic pots in a SA cichlid tank. They immediately ripped them up out of the gravel. 3 2" net pots worth of clay fogged a 300 gallon tank so bad you couldnt see the fish for 2 hours and I spent weeks cleaning it out of my bio sponge.

 

[Hybridfish7]

Oh damn, gotcha, seems like no clay for now. What other silty substrates (other than straight silt) could I use?

 

[Disturbed.)]

If it's for a planted tank. Oil dry / kitty litter works well as a clay substitute for adding iron. If it's just to give cichlids something to dig in any gravel or sand becomes their sandbox. They will rearrange it to their liking. Black diamond sand blasting media is one of the best there is also crushed garnet, It's a pinkish red.

 

[Hybridfish7]

If it's for a planted tank. Oil dry / kitty litter works well as a clay substitute for adding iron. If it's just to give cichlids something to dig in any gravel or sand becomes their sandbox. They will rearrange it to their liking. Black diamond sand blasting media is one of the best there is also crushed garnet, It's a pinkish red.

I usually use play sand, which is already light, but I was looking for something lighter and smaller. Might grab some silt from a local stream.