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Lead

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1. mineral wool bad for fish?
   by Wright Huntley <huntley1/home.com> (Sat, 21 Oct 2000)

mineral wool bad for fish?

by Wright Huntley <huntley1/home.com>
Date: Sat, 21 Oct 2000

> Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 23:33:33 +0100
> From: "zpyder" <zpyder@btinternet.com>
> Subject: mineral wool bad for fish?

snip...

> then i read in a book a few days ago that the mineral wool and/or the lead
> strips used to wrap theroots up should be removed and the plant wahed
> thorourly. is mineral really bad fo fish or something? i would have thought
> it stupid to use something in plants that go in aquariums that can
> potentially kill fish...

The mineral wool is usually a form of spun glass, and isn't really
chemically harmful to the fish. 

It just needs to be removed to get the roots ready for a good substrate or
other anchor in a non-hydroponic greenhouse. It *can* harbor strong urea -
or ammonia-based fertilizer. *That* could be a disaster in your tank, of
course. It was probably long-since rinsed out at your LFS. 

The fine shreds of it are silica irritants, of course, exactly like
asbestos. Loose stuff should, therefore, always be rinsed off.

Lead is also quite inert in most tanks, as they usually are slightly above 7
in pH.

I found out the hard way that lead can etch and dissolve in more acid water,
and the fish can die of heavy-metal poisoning. That is one reason why
responsible suppliers of bunch plants are switching to non-lead or
vinyl-covered weights.

Wright

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