Are bricks aquarium-safe? what should I look for?

[fairdeal]

I haven't purchased any bricks or sidewalk stones for aquarium use in 3 or 4 years now so I am not sure if this will be a concern or not, BUT does anyone know if these products are still all coming from North American manufacturers? I would be very concerned if any were coming from offshore manufacturers as no one really knows what they put in their products anymore. All most suppliers seem to care about these days is that they get their products sold to them for much cheaper than before and they really don't care what is in the products or they don't want to know especially in something like bricks, etc.

[whatley01]

Does anyone happen to know if I can use bricks in my aquarium?

To be more specific, PIECES of brick. Will I have to coat it with epoxy or something first, or will it be safe to just place in the tank? I was thinking I should boil the pieces first to try and get them their cleanest and possibly leach out all the color there might be. Good idea?

I saw mention of using bricks to build caves and decorations on another website, but I wanted to run it by the pros here first.

I have used building bricks in my tanks for around eight years and never seemed to have a problem. they were great to build caves and hiding places. The only think I found is some had a fairly sharp edges so we just filed them down alittle before putting them in

[Boom]

I haven't purchased any bricks or sidewalk stones for aquarium use in 3 or 4 years now so I am not sure if this will be a concern or not, BUT does anyone know if these products are still all coming from North American manufacturers? I would be very concerned if any were coming from offshore manufacturers as no one really knows what they put in their products anymore. All most suppliers seem to care about these days is that they get their products sold to them for much cheaper than before and they really don't care what is in the products or they don't want to know especially in something like bricks, etc.

I picked up some bricks from the brick yard just south of Argyll Rd on 86 st the other day. The bricks are stanped with "Canada" right on them, so I assume they are made here. Not sure about the other ones you get at Home Depot and such though....