red bricks in salamander tanks?

[michael]

I have a pile of old bricks outside. They have been weathered for years and have no mortar on them. They are red bricks and suppose they are clay. Do you think they are safe to use in salamander tanks?

 

[platinum]

Red bricks in salamandr tanks?

Some bricks can exude high levels of salt, sometimes years after they were fired. You can often see white patches of crystallised salt on the exterior of new houses.
If they've been weathered for some time and there are no white patches, they're probably okay,but it wouldn't do any harm to hose them down and give them a soak.
I've used them before without any problem.

 

[Jennewt]

I use quite a lot of these in my tanks. I wasn't aware of the salt issue, that's good to know. With items from outdoors, I rinse them, then boil them, then scrub with a stiff brush before I put them in tanks.

 

[Otterwoman]

I use bricks in many of my tanks too. The Hudson river used to have brick factories all up and down it, and I've collected hundreds of antique bricks out of the water during kayaking trips from defunct factories. They've all been soaking for decades.

 

[John]

The problem with bricks is that their properties are largely dependent on the clay from which they were made - simply saying "red brick" doesn't help too much because there can be many sources of the clay. I've used bricks myself but I usually have left them outside under the elements for many years (in my case it was Ireland, so they were regularly rinsed for years!). In all probability I would think you'll be fine though.