drift wood and rocks...

[twistedimage92]

i feel retarded looking for rocks and stuff on ebay... florida is mostly sand and hard to find good, flat rocks to make a good home for cichlids... also, without taking a trip to a local river... i am having a hard time finding good wood for my tank. does anyone know where i can buy rocks and wood from that would be good for my tank in my area? local hardware store or somthing?

 

[JNevaril]

find some slate.

don't get wood. it will make your tank funky and it will biff your ph.

you need to find some flat slate. is there a quarry nearby?

 

[twistedimage92]

i have some small peices of wood in there now... seems to be ok with the couple of peices... there is no quarry around here that i know of... i like your quote... my wife wants to get a tatoo simular to that written on her foot "the thoughts of you out number the grains of sand" or something like that

 

[ram man]

with the wood only do it if you have SA cichlids. but i guess you could do it with africans because it doesnt change your ph by alot only a little bit. slate would be good

 

[TLM4x4]

OR you could shop your lfs...alot of times they do sell "Holy Rock", which from what I understand is very light so using alot of them doesnt create alot of weight in your tank. There are other things in the lfs you could investigate for possible use in your tank as well. And if not in that lfs, maybe in another...use your phone and let your fingers do the walking first

 

[JNevaril]

hee hee.

holy rock...

it goes to church.

It's called Texas Holey Rock. It looks painful if a fish swims a bit too close to it.

like i said.

find slate.

slate is your friend.

most fish stores carry it.

i got blue slate, black slate and purple slate for 1.89 a pound.

 

[Aaron]

Go to a garden supply store or a hardware/building store and ask for "flagstone" they sell it by the square foot (vs LFS by weight) buy a few big pieces then smash them at home it breaks very easily and then you can just pick the pieces you want. You can decorate your entire tank for a couple of dollars.

 

[Orion]

Landscape place. That's where I've got most of my rocks. Enough to fill out my 75 gallon for only $20.

Driftwood is up to you. If you cure it well, then it will release very little tannis into the water, and not lowering your PH by much. However if your tap water is hard, then it most likley will not affect it at all even if you don't cure it well. A few pieces isn't likley to affect your ph much anyway.

 

[JNevaril]

hmmm.

maybe i just worry too much.

i'd be afraid to put real driftwood into my tank.


that's just me though.

to each their own.

 

[twistedimage92]

yea no drift wood for me...

 

[wayne]

I kept driftwood in with my tropheus, and it was never a problem. Compared to the 'strong' basic potential of alkalinity, the weedy organic acids dropped out by driftwood are relatively powerless to drop the pH

 

[R0UNDEYEZ]

the weedy organic acids dropped out by driftwood are relatively powerless to drop the pH

That seems to be pretty true.. When I first set up my tank I wanted to drop my PH a little bit since it is pretty high where I live and I had read the fish I was keeping at the time prefer lower PH..(now I know not to toy with the PH unless its an extreme reading)Anyway, I added a few pieces of driftwood hoping it would drop, but a year later it has yet to lower it at all..I would imagine if you had alot of driftwood it might make a difference.. but you seem more interested in rocks rather than driftwood anyway

 

[Masta_Cheef]

There's no real harm in adding driftwood to your tank. Just cure it in a bucket of hot water for like 5-7 days and change the water out every day. Should be good to go after that. Or, if you really want to get it in the tank sooner, boil it.