# Obsidian Rock



## little

I have found a little on them, They pretty much say its glass and safe for tanks, just to watch the sharp edges. I have a large spot in the yard thats full of this stuff, before i get carried away anyone have input on this? is it safe? besides being careful with the edges on the tank glass i am thinking what about the fish? My tigar bards like to rub on things. should i worry?


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## ron v

Fish can hurt themselves on sharp edges.


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## little

I was thinking there should be away to take the edges off. So basically if the sharp corners and so forth are smoothed out there should not be any problem? the ones in my yard are very old and worn,


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## fish_doc

It is basically lava rock that has cooled at a different speed than other lava. I have seen this type of rock used in several aquariums and even sold in some petstores for the aquarium trade. 
I do not see any problems with using it other than making sure there are no chemicals on it. Has the yard ever been fertlized? These types of chemicals can cause a fish kill pretty quick.


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## FortWayneFish

Little,

My personal experience do not use Obsidian. We got a bunch of Obsidian out by Looking Glass in Central Oregon a few years ago( I grew up in Eugene ). We tried smoothing the edges but the stuff tends to flake easily and produce new sharp edges. 

Once we was happy that the edges where smooth enough, we put the rocks in the fish tank in a small pile making nice little caves and ledges for the fish to swim through. WOuldn't you know it one of the rocks shifted and fell the 1/4" down onto the other one and Crack a small fragment broke off.
Another sharp edge.... ( no wonder the Indians used the stuff to make Arrow heads )

We ended up removing it all from our tanks and choice to go with the red lava rock you can find all over the Sisters/ Bend area. Makes for some beautiful aquascaping just watch out for those fish that like to scrape against things. as the rougness can and will leave flesh wounds..

If your in the SISTERS area of Central Oregon might want to get ahold of David Soares and see if you can tour his Fishroom I'll guarantee you'll be impressed..
David Soares Bio


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## little

thank you fortwaynefish! i am in la pine but might just try the sisters tour if i can, 
and like the doc said i have no clue if the yard has been fertlized. so maybe i should not even go there. And i was planning a pretty good balenceing act too. so better not go there, but got alot of lava rock! so maybe thats a better plan .... thanks everyone..


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## TheOldSalt

Well, it's a bit of extra effort, but you could always put some into a rock tumbler and polish the stones until they are perfectly smooth. Tumbled obsidian is way kewl looking stuff, and after such treatment they'd certainly be detoxified if anything was on them.


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## MaryPa

You have lava rock in Oregon?:lol: I didn`t even know there were volcanos in Oregon!


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## ALFA WOLF

yeah dont use obsidian because its to much a hassle and shaving it off will make small peices that are much liek glass and can get into your skin and irritate u badly and carefull when handle it cuase ive cut myself with this stuff many times.


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## little

yes we have lots of volcanos, marypa.st. helens in portland i think is the most recent active one, 
I think i like old salts idea, have no clue about it but i am going to look into tumbleing them,,, 
thanks

EDITED / UPDATED
well after a quick look at the tumbling, the rocks I had plans for are very large i guess, there was to be one that would be on the top thats an arched 8 inch long


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## MaryPa

Gesh, that goes to show how much I know about Oregon. I do seem to recall something about Mt. St. Helen,I stand corrected. 
In Hawaii they have Volcano gods that curse you if you take any lava rock. Good thing that oregon lava.


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## little

yeah , and your not to take pork over the pali, I know this since i grew up in the islands, but now that i think of it the lave rocks look diffrent. and the Hawaii post office gets lava rock sent to them with out a return sender info so there stuck with it,,, bet they have a nice rock garden!!


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## wildtiger

I have quite a few pieces of obsidian in my tanks, have never had any problems, with the rock or the fish hurting themselves on it. The again, none of it has sharp edges either.

It looks fantastic especially if you have interesting obsidian rather than just the solid colored stuff.


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## FortWayneFish

Mt St Helens is located in Southern Washington State.

I think I recall there are at least 30volcanoes in the Cascade Range in Oregon alone. 
Oregon Does have 4 Active volcanoes by the way : Mount Hood, Crater Lake, Newberry and South Sister. The South Sister has been burping and throwing ash for a lot of years. 

There is possibly a cinder cone or another volcano growing along side the Three Sisters about 35 miles from the Town of Bend. It was named Little Brother back in late 90's and is growing at a rate of approx 10 feet per year.

Ok just a little trivia off top of my head  


Rob Renfro
an Oregonian stuck in Indiana


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