As more and more people start taking up fish keeping, we have noticed more and more questions about how to take care of a wide range of different fish.
Although we do see a wide range of different questions being asked from the community, we have noticed more and more people reaching out about using bricks in their aquarium as hides and for decoration.
Now, there are a wide range of fish hides available on the market that we would generally recommend that our readers go with over bricks if possible.
Bricks are some what controversial though due to there being a number of different ingredient lists for bricks with some of them being able to have a drastic effect on your water parameters.
Still, due to seeing so many people reaching out and asking about using bricks in their aquarium, we wanted to publish a dedicated article going over the topic.
Our hope is that we will be able to help as many of our readers as possible and help them realize the potential risks of using bricks in their tank and why the majority of people should avoid using bricks in their aquarium if possible.
Can You Use Bricks in An Aquarium?
Although you can use some bricks in your aquarium, it is generally considered too risky to add bricks to your tank as it is too difficult to know if the bricks you are using are aquarium safe.
Potential risks range from changes to water pH to actual toxins being leaked into the water from the brick.
The main problem is that regular construction bricks are not held to the same standards of other materials commonly used in aquariums.
This is due to the regulations around displaying the ingredients used in the bricks not being essential in most countries as they are not intended for use with pets.
On top of that, some bricks are dusty and can contaminate the water. This can potentially cause problems with the gills of your fish as well as cause problems for any other filter breathing animals or live plants in your tank too.
The risks are simply too high for the majority of people when there are much better alternatives that you are able to use to bricks in your aquarium.
What Are The Benefits of Putting Bricks In Your Aquarium?
The two main uses for bricks in your aquarium are for fish hides or for decoration. There are usually much better options for both in your aquarium that don’t pose as much of a threat to your fish that bricks can.
In our opinion, you should always just use regular fish hides for your tank as they are made from inert materials that are totally safe and will not harm your fish.
There are also a wide range of different styles of commercial fish hides on the market in a range of different sizes too ensuring that you will always be able to find something large enough for your pet fish no matter the species.
If you are considering using bricks in your aquarium as a form of decoration then you will probably be better off going with synthetic decorations too.
There are a wide range of different aquarium decorations on the market that are safe to use in your tank while being able to be used to create a unique look in your tank.
Are All Bricks Safe For Use In An Aquarium?
The majority of bricks are not considered safe for use in an aquarium unless it is a brick that has specifically been designed for use in an aquarium.
Unfortunately though, these aquarium safe bricks are very rare and usually expensive so most people usually just go with alternatives to bricks.
If you are set on wanting to use a brick in your aquarium then you really should quarantine it if possible.
Our advice would be to put the brick into a spare tank with no fish in it or even a bucket filled with water, leave the brick in the water for a week and then test the water parameters using a water test kit to check if the brick has had any effect on your water.
The majority of the time you will see that the brick you are testing does leak potential toxins into the water as well as affect the water parameters in other ways too.
On the off chance that the brick did not change your water parameters while in quarantine, you can then consider moving forward with adding the brick to your aquarium but some bricks will take longer to leak their impurities into your aquarium water.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over using bricks in your aquarium to an end. We hope that you have found our article helpful and that we have been able to help you better understand why you should never directly add a brick to your aquarium without testing if it will have an effect on the water parameters of the water first. The majority of the time, you will usually find that the brick will end up changing the parameters of your water in some way.
