# Toys in tanks?? :-)



## bmoore09 (Nov 20, 2010)

So we were looking for a couple things for the bottom of our new 20 gallon tank tonight at the LFS. As we were looking I noticed most just seemed like cheaply made toys (shipwrecks, skulls, etc). 
So my 8-year-old said he had a small lego set he wanted to put in his tank that was a pirate ship. I thought it would be a cool personalization of his new tank. Is there any problem with this? Would it be dangerous for the tank/fish? 
Is there anything that makes those shipwrecks/castles at the store special for aquariums like the paint or something?

I just wanted to ask before I let him stick legos in there. We're new to the aquarium game and I've never thought about it.


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## chris oe (Feb 27, 2009)

Basically the concern would be, would something leach out of the legos and poison the water. As a mom that's been dealing with legos for the better part of a decade, I'd say you could probably leave a couple legos in the bottom of a glass of milk and still drink the milk hours later. On the other hand, if it were a surface decorated lego, I'd be less confident, if it were an off brand lego, still less. If its one of those lego pieces that are flexible, there will be plasticizers that are in it that have been the cause of a lot of concern in baby toys. Would they immediately kill the fish? Probably not. Could they eventually leach and cause tumors on the fish? Possibly. Aquariums are a very closed system, once something is in the water it stays in the water, the water doesn't go anyplace very quickly except for those regular partial water changes we do weekly that only replace a small percentage. 

So I'd scrutinize the pirate ship, giving it a really good rinsing to make sure there's no soap or anything on it (has it ever gone in the bathtub? 'cause residual soap would kill fish) and I'd think about taking off any flexible parts or surface decorated parts, and if it was still cool looking then, I'd feel like yes, it could be a cool aquarium decoration.


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## gpd605x (Jun 28, 2012)

I know this is an old thread, but I was thinking about putting some lego's as decorations in the tank. These would be new, never used lego's and wonder if they would be safe in a freshwater tank. Any ideas?


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## bmoore09 (Nov 20, 2010)

Since I started this thread about 1.5 years ago I've have multiple kinds of legos in the tank. As soon as my son builds something new he wants to put in, we just give it a good washing and stick it in. One diver Lego man has been in there the whole time. He's even made it through some bad algae times and always comes out unscathed. So I'd say from experience....legos are fine!


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

I wouldn't see a problem with it... if in doubt, clean with hot water and vinegar (or hot water and bleach) and then rinse rinse rinse before putting into the tank. (Should have NO bleach or vinegar smell or residue left when you put it in the tank.)


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## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

bmoore09 said:


> Since I started this thread about 1.5 years ago I've have multiple kinds of legos in the tank. As soon as my son builds something new he wants to put in, we just give it a good washing and stick it in. One diver Lego man has been in there the whole time. He's even made it through some bad algae times and always comes out unscathed. So I'd say from experience....legos are fine!


Nice to know.

And after all this, it does kinda make sense.

After all shouldn't anything that a child might put in their mouth be safe for an aquarium. *old dude

my .02


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## gpd605x (Jun 28, 2012)

Im also making some model cars out of styrofoam for my tank
Drew on sone details this morning with a marker.

































Hopefully today i will be painting and sealing it with aqua silicone and then add some weight to it


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