Habitat - Indoor :: mystery plant

[Skippah]

i got this in my mailbox probably as a late birthday gift. it looks like it is supposed to be for saltwater it's the baseof the plant only in the picture is this safe?

p. s. its a fake plant

[Skippah]

and at least i know its saltwater safe because it had a rockgarden tag and it was in a petco bag

[steve]

A fake aquarium plant should be fine.

[Skippah]

but its the base im worried abuot that parts real

[steve]

It is made of some sort of resin?

[Skippah]

no

[devilduck]

Hard to tell from the picture but it looks like some type of coral, it could also be lava rock. Lava rock would be safe but coral would slowly dissolve in freshwater adding a ton of minerals into the water.

[Skippah]

i think its coral

[Skippah]

*rips off plastic plants* *crushes base*

[VeipaCray]

It's NOT safe. That's what's called base rock. It's actually compressed remains of coral that build over the years. Base rock will buffer calcium into the water over time and raise PH. Do not put this in a freshwater tank as-is. If you want to put this in your freshwater turtle tank, cut the plants off the base rock and re-attach them to something freshwater safe like driftwood, a regular rock or something fake / resin based.

[Kansasslider]

You could mount the plants to mopani wood

[Skippah]

good idea!

[isktaine]

Sorry to bump this old thread, but I was trawling old posts and had never heard about this 'base rock' before. I don't think any of my plastic plants have this and I'm slowly replacing them with real ones anyway, but I wanted to ask how can you tell something is this base rock from looking at it/touching it? In the photo it just looks like a regular fake base.

[Skippah]

well, its crumbly, powdery, and full of holes. i don't think its a good idea to use real plants. they will disappear probably, and you wont have any plants. i would at least keep the old plastic ones just in case. p. s. it will probably say salt water on the tag? maybe? it didn't say on the tag on mine tho.

[Skippah]

i cant post a better picture sorry i already got rid of it.