Deer Antlers in Tank???
- Thread starter Burbotman
- Start date
i had a cows skull that i put in my pond to see how it went. after a week or two the water got really smelly. the skull was as least 4 yrs old and totally dry , that was about 2 years ago do you think i should i should try again? is there anything extra i can do to help get rid of the problem?
cheers dan
cheers dan
If you want to add real skulls/bones to a soft-water species tank, you can seal it and coat it. If the bone floats, spray on a plastic sealer with a heavy carrier like acetone. This acetone will allow the plastic to penetrate the bone and add weight while replacing air. Once the bone no longer absorbs the plastic spray, allow the piece to dry completely, then switch to the coating. Use 2-part epoxy to completely coat the bone (including inside the skull, nostrils, etc.). Once the coat is completely cured it will be inert to your water chemistry like any other epoxy coated decoration from a lfs.
it depends where you got the skull from. The skull could be retaining a little tissue or dirt with bacteria in it, which had a population explosion from the nutrients in your tank. Or, to the reverse, a small population of bacteria in your tank could have derived some nutrients from the skull. If you want to put in a possibly uncured bone, I would suggest either waterproof nontoxic coating, or, if you can find a way to do this, the ultimate sterilization and preservation of calcified body substances is as follows....dan76 said:
1)place the skull (or any bone) in a bath of pure ethanol, such that it is completely submerged. Cover the container and leave outside (to avoid killing yourself with fumes) for 48 hours
2)remove the skull and wash it thoroughly in running water several times.
3)place the skull in a plain water for about one hour, then remove from the water bath and wash again
4)autoclave the skull
5)place the skull in a drying oven until COMPLETELY devoid of moisture
6)spritz the skull one more time with 70% ethanol and allow to air dry
7)wash in tank change water from your tank
8)place it in your tank
best of luck
Note- if you decide to use this method, it is VITAL that you remove ALL ETHANOL from the bone. To check this, you may want to color the ethanol with vegetable dye.
It was funny because just before I read Oddballs post I was thinking the same thing. Just seal it with an epoxy then you dont have to worry about leaching of anything.
I had the same idea. I have a ton of shed slaying around but i was more woried about the sharp ends. I was concerned that someone may swim into it and get hurt. It looks realy good though. Good luck.
