Styrofoam?

[Aweshade9]

Would styrofoam be toxic to fish? It seems like it would have more surface area that most things.

 

[joe jaskot]

Not toxic to fish, but what would you use it for? It floats.

 

[Metriacliman]

It floats a lot.

 

[Aweshade9]

A mini version of necromanis' bucket filter.

 

[Drstrangelove]

Styrofoam is extruded polystyrene foam. The cell structure is closed not open. I'm not a chemist, so take that into account, but it's not the first thing I would think of using. If it works however and you have some clean stuff, it probably is ok.

 

[Aweshade9]

Cool

 

[the_deeb]

Most styrofoam is actually polystyrene. There's some evidence that styrene can have adverse health effects - it accumulates in fatty tissues and may have neurotoxic and carcinogenic effects in some animals.

http://www.ejnet.org/plastics/polystyrene/health.html#5

As far as I know, no has really studied the effects in fish, and I'm guessing small amounts probably aren't a problem (I've had polystyrene backgrounds in a bunch of my tanks), but I'd be wary of using it as a filtration media where you're constantly pushing water through it and promoting it's breakdown.

 

[Aweshade9]

Oh... well why risk it when there are other options

 

[celanova]

Should be fine to use.