Anyone Tried Lava Rock in a Tank?

I was looking at some at my local Home Depot. The rocks seem very
porous and probably can support quite a good bio filter. Anyone with
experience with these rocks instead of gravel?

"ManWorld42" wrote in message
...
I was looking at some at my local Home Depot. The rocks seem very
porous and probably can support quite a good bio filter. Anyone with
experience with these rocks instead of gravel?

If used as a substitute for gravel, then I wouldn't have any bottom
feeders, as the stones are usually quite sharp edged & abrasive. There
are very good at harbouring micro-organisms (especially for feeding
newborn fry), however they are equally good are harbouring less desirable
things, like rotting detritus and algaes, so ymmv. As stonework, I
usually don't recommend them as it's too easy for fish to damage their
sides on them (especially when they get caught between a lava rock and
the glass). jmo
--
www.NetMax.tk

Petsmart and such sells lava rock as when i used to work there people
bought it all of the time for their tank. The really small pieces my
be to light and porous i am not sure as these were bigger pieces 6 +
inches

Marc
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On 10 Oct 2004 01:51:54 -0700, (ManWorld42)
wrote:

I was looking at some at my local Home Depot. The rocks seem very
porous and probably can support quite a good bio filter. Anyone with
experience with these rocks instead of gravel?

On 2004-10-10, ManWorld42 wrote:
I was looking at some at my local Home Depot. The rocks seem very
porous and probably can support quite a good bio filter. Anyone with
experience with these rocks instead of gravel?

For one of my tanks, I dug some lava rock out of my mom's garden, washed
it off and plunked em in. One of the pieces is in the new tank I setup
recently. It's nice looking! I suspect that it might have contributed
some of extremely high water hardness in a tank, but I also had Seachem
Onyx substrate in there, so hard to tell.

My rocks don't have sharp endges - they'd been out as a border for my
mom's garden for a few years and had been worn pretty smooth by weather.


--
Ross Vandegrift


"The good Christian should beware of mathematicians, and all those who
make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicians
have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine
man in the bonds of Hell."
--St. Augustine, De Genesi ad Litteram, Book II, xviii, 37

ManWorld42 wrote:

I was looking at some at my local Home Depot. The rocks seem very
porous and probably can support quite a good bio filter. Anyone with
experience with these rocks instead of gravel?

I've seen lava rock recommended for this very use. As Netmax noted, the
rock has lots of sharp edges, so it could be tough on any fish that
bumped into it. Used in a sump or instead of bio-balls, though, it
should make a pretty good home for bacteria.


--
Eric Schreiber
www.ericschreiber.com

You can use lava rock with out any problems. However as others have
noticed it can be very rough and fish can scrape themselves on it.
Especially if you have very active fish.

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