tree sap (pitch) and its effects

[señor_pescados_felices]

A while back a freind of mine was using lava rock in his landscaping,and upon completion gave me a fair sized pile (enough to aquascape with for years to come).

anyway I was just looking at my tank when I noticed some little dots in the crevices of one of my lava rocks and picked a small peice out to investigate...it was tree sap.

I went outside and noticed that the strong winds from the storm about 2 weeks earlier had broken a branch off an oak tree,which in turn snapped off a branch from a pine tree that was bleeding sap on my pile of lava rocks.

most of the rocks in my tanks were taken from the pile before the sap leeching incident and of those that were taken from the pile in the last week or so many were thrown out,but there were a few (2) nice ones that I boiled and scrubbed with a wire brush,leaving just a few small spots of sap stuck down in the crvices of the lava rock.

my questions are:
what are the effects of tree sap on fish?

are the small traces of sap left in those last 2 lava rocks likely enough to have ill effects?

 

[MilitantPotato]

My only experiance with sap is using wood that wasn't completely dead (not sap free)
It stunk fairly bad after a couple weeks in the water and grew a white fuzz that my plecs made short work of. There was no harm to any of my fish I noticed (delicate plecs, loaches, tetras, and rainbowfish.) I didn't test my chemistry so I'm not sure if the PH fell or not, if it did it was gradual even though it was a fairly large piece of wood for the tank.

So, from my experiance, no, sap won't harm anything, but it wasn't pine.

Fish live in water that pine trees fall in, and they don't die, so I'd figure it's fine. Maybe stick the rock in a bucket with some feeders for a week, and test the chem while ya wait to see if they die.

 

[Dr Joe]

Since it's organic, unless you have some very sensitive fish (like discus) and put alot in your tank, it shouldn't cause any water chemistry chenges. Like SPF got, you could experience some algae growth if you don't have anything it the tank that likes to eat.

Dr Joe

.

 

[guppy]

Most tree saps, like oak, are harmless.
Some are a bit acidic, some contain volital oils that in large ammounts could be harmful, like yew, cedar, or pine.
Some are dangerously caustic, like cashew or the potentially lethal manchineel tree.

 

[MilitantPotato]

Most tree saps, like oak, are harmless.
Some are a bit acidic, some contain volital oils that in large ammounts could be harmful, like yew, cedar, or pine.
Some are dangerously caustic, like cashew or the potentially lethal manchineel tree.

That is a great bit of info, thanks guppy.

 

[Bigairmxman]

pine is off limiits?

 

[MilitantPotato]

Soft woods rot a lot quicker, so yea, avoid pine and the others.