I currently have a barebottom 55 gallon tank for my goldfish. I was thinking of either putting a few glass marbles in or covering the entire bottom with a bunch of marbles. Are old antique/handmade marbles safe to use if they are disinfected? Should they be disinfected with a bleach/water solution?

Hi Gerbie. I have seen marbles as a substrate before, and it looks pretty cool. Glass marbles would be fine. Just be careful that you don't have any painted ones going in the tank, as you never know what toxins could leak out. Can't wait to see some piccys! Good luck!

Excellent, I have had this tank running for about 9 months and I finally figured out my theme! Martini Bar! I am going to have a couple plain martini glasses filled with different colored glass marbles. I am really excited to get this thing underway.

Gerbie, that sounds very cool. Can't wait to see the pics!

I have been using marbles and these little "U" shaped glass thingies as a substrate since I set my tank up. The fish love rooting around in them, but they are noisy, lol. The only thing you really need to watch with this is to make sure that any cracked or chipped marbles or glass pieces come out of the tank. I scoop mine up with a net every so often and double check them. Other than that, they are much easier to clean and there is nowhere for the bacteria to sink into.

Definitely disinfect with a bleach solution! I usually use a 1:19 parts water:bleach.

Be careful that the glasses can't be tipped over and the edge or falling marbles crack the bottom of the tank.

Sounds like a cool idea.

And as an added precaution to what Daniel said, be sure to scrub those martini glasses out once a week so the food and bacteria don't cause a problem. I think these would be similar to hollow ornaments which can cause a problem if not kept spotlessly clean.

It will look awesome, though.

Project is underway! I found a huge martini glass "fishbowl" today at nnnn. Hopefully, I saved some poor fish from being put into one of these things as their habitat. I plan on making this the focal point of the set up. This one is definitely heavy enough as to not tip over, but I do plan on getting martini glasses that are heavily weighted on the bottom so the current wont tip them over.

Thanks for all the replies. I will be disinfecting everything with bleach and water and I will for sure clean them out during water changes. I hadn't thought of the hollow ornament rule Vickie, thanks for bringing it up. I will pay close attention to them.

Thanks and hopefully I will have pics up sometime tomorrow as I plan to get everything together and in the tank then.

I can't wait to see pictures this sounds really cool.. Ohh ohh OHHH I have an idea. If you have room on a shelf somewhere close to the tank you should get one of those cheap martini glass neons and put it nearby!!!! I got one last year, I won with tokens saved up at an arcade at the beach, but I've seen them all over lately.. I've seen them for as low as $14 ish lately. They used to be sooo much more.

Wallyworld did have these at one time and they still might. My son has a couple of them and they look very cool. He used to live in an older apartment building on the second floor in his single days and had them in his windows. Looked like there was a bar up there, lol!

lol i will be on the look out for one of these!

I currently have a few marbles on the bottom of my tank, they're safer for my fishy- I switched from gravel when she got a rock stick in her mouth and SWALLOWED it!
She likes pushing these around though!

I can't wait to see photos, this really sounds awesome.

Sounds like a great theme! I am interested in seeing piccys.