Welcome to opalholicsanonymous.com where opal season lasts forever.

Picked off a 54c welo from ebay not long ago that looked promising .Things were looking pretty good when the clean up started revealing some sweet color play, then the cracks appeared. The only thing I could pull off it now would be under 1c so into the fish tank it goes.
I got some nice Mintabie rough coming from Paul that should arrive soon.

Ohhh, bummer, Rock! It was a real beauty for a while. You'll have the best fish gravel in town, though.

I hate it when that happens

I hate seeing that fast swoop over the crazy side in you tube sales videos so that only a few frames show the crackling starting where they could not polish it all away. Its almost as bad as the people selling unusable rough and expecting the buyers to see how bad it is. Personally I have about a 1/4 kilo now of white Coober Pedy material that shows cracks throughout after sitting dry for a few years.

I was looking at my trays of cut stones the other day, I reckon I have a LRB thats cracked over time.
Nice to see someone using Opal in the fish tank. Ive had some p&c for that very pirpose listed for ages but no takers.
I reckon if youre prepared to wash it, or somehow keep it clean, it must look fantastic given the lights that can be used.
If I had the know how, I reckon making a background of chips would be the go, vertical set in resin or something.
So it could be easily removed for a scrub.

Better then tossing it out I thought. You never know, it might come in handy again someday, may as well put it to use for now. Algae eaters and plecostomus-cat fish keep em scrubbed shinny.

there is a lot of big junk Welo on the market
most of this stuff is oiled and is not good for cutting
yours look like part of bigger phantom which are cool but risky to cut so the best to keep it as specimen
btw. a lot of these phantomes are also treated with oil or other stuff !

I hadn't thought about the oiled ones, and I definitely wouldn't use them in a fish tank. It's a great idea though, and you're right, Rock, a catfish and a few snails should keep them pretty clean.