# Rocks



## Heagney (31 Mar 2016)

Do you think any of the rocks will be ok in an aquarium?


----------



## Jamie McGrath (31 Mar 2016)

Sorry mate cant tell you if they would be okay in an aquarium. Please can you name the store where the rocks were seen?


----------



## Tim Harrison (31 Mar 2016)

I think they'll all be OK for aquarium use...some e.g. top left may raise TDS but that's not usually a problem with the frequent and substantial water changes associated our planted tanks.


----------



## Heagney (31 Mar 2016)

Thanks troi. They were all in dobbies garden centre


----------



## Tim Harrison (31 Mar 2016)

Haha...kinda knew it - seen them there myself in MK must be a national range, but that's not unexpected they're owned by Tesco...


----------



## alto (1 Apr 2016)

Troi said:


> e.g. top left may raise TDS but that's not usually a problem with the frequent and substantial water changes associated our planted tanks


this may depend somewhat on tap water - mine's very soft - pH jumps dramatically with some of these rocks (as in pH 6.0 to pH 8.5 - 9.0) 

Many people will suggest taking care with the red streaked rock, again depending on water parameters & actual type of deposit, you may observe water column effects (also likely depends on amount of rock used)

Looks like lots of interesting rock!


----------



## Martin in Holland (1 Apr 2016)

Bring a small bottle of hydrochloric acid with you and put a drop on a rock to see if it'll fizz.


----------



## Tim Harrison (1 Apr 2016)

Or vinegar....yep alto has a point, However, many of the rocks used for aquascaping like seiryu stone and ryuoh stone are all really just types of limestone and some very soft, and have a tendency to raise TDS pH etc even in fairly hard water areas but regular 50% water changes usually seem to counter that.


----------



## PARAGUAY (1 Apr 2016)

Noticed B&Q started putting "not fish safe" on most of their decorative garden pebbles and cobbles in garden centre area,dont think they really know just a cover option for them maybe some pond owner has had a issue?Granite rockery stone looks good


----------



## Heagney (1 Apr 2016)

Yeh none of them are named just classed as decorative. I liked the look of the grey ones for what I want to do. The black and white pebbles are pretty cool as well. Didn't realise they were owned by tesco!


----------



## Wisey (1 Apr 2016)

Thought this was going to be Dobbies, recognised them from my local one in Aberdeen! Does your Dobbies have an Aquatics section? We did here in Aberdeen, but it was not great, but it has now been taken over by Maidenhead Aquatics/Fishkeeper Scotland and is much better.


----------



## Greenfinger2 (1 Apr 2016)

Troi said:


> Haha...kinda knew it - seen them there myself in MK must be a national range, but that's not unexpected they're owned by Tesco...




Hi Tim, Where about's in MK  I love rock hunting 

I go here in Enfield Thompsons of Crews hill, Lots of great gravels stones and rocks. 

https://plus.google.com/photos/photo/109455706223152339284/6109206480992431666


----------



## John S (1 Apr 2016)

Will have to try Thompsons next time I'm in Crews Hill. I quite like the look of the Westmorland stones.


----------



## Wisey (1 Apr 2016)

Greenfinger2 said:


> Hi Tim, Where about's in MK  I love rock hunting
> 
> I go here in Enfield Thompsons of Crews hill, Lots of great gravels stones and rocks.
> 
> https://plus.google.com/photos/photo/109455706223152339284/6109206480992431666



Hi Roy, is this where you got the nice grey stones used in the hardscape for your 60cm? (which you are killing me by not planting yet by the way, haha)


----------



## Greenfinger2 (1 Apr 2016)

Wisey said:


> Hi Roy, is this where you got the nice grey stones used in the hardscape for your 60cm? (which you are killing me by not planting yet by the way, haha)



Hi Wisey, The lager gray paddle stones yes. The little gray pebbles I collected from a gravel bar in a stream just round the corner from where I live

Sorry to keep you waiting on the 60cm it will be up and running soon  I am just in the middle of a new project at the moment and sorting out the 40cm Cube form a algae attack.

One photo of the stream where I hunt stones and other bits


----------



## Wisey (1 Apr 2016)

Greenfinger2 said:


> One photo of the stream where I hunt stones and other bits



Indeed... the river cobbles in my current scape may well have come from somewhere similar


----------



## Tim Harrison (1 Apr 2016)

Hi Roy
Dobbies is here https://www.dobbies.com/find-a-garden-centre/milton-keynes/ it has an aquatics section, but it's not too clever.
And there are two other garden centres near one another here...
http://www.wyevalegardencentres.co.uk/garden-centres/wyevale/Woburn-Sands/26 also incorporates Maidenhead Aquatics - great people and livestock.
http://www.frostsgardencentres.co.uk/centres/woburn_sands which is where I got the slate used in Cryptic Haven from - landscape section. Used to have aquatics but it closed down.
Next time you come up to Destination Aquatics (still the best) give them a look see. The road network is so good in MK you can get from one side to the other in 10-20 mins, so it shouldn't take you long


----------



## Iain Sutherland (1 Apr 2016)

The grey river boulders with white veining are pretty cool. Most 'hard' rocks are pretty safe and make little change to chemistry but testing as suggested is always wise.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk


----------



## Heagney (1 Apr 2016)

Raising the ph would be a good thing for me I just want to make sure the rocks don't contaminate the water.

Roy do you have a link to your 60cm?


----------



## Wisey (3 Apr 2016)

This is Roy's 60cm that I was referring to. I love this hardscape and shamelessly intend to copy this style at some point in the future! Can't wait to see Roy get this planted!

http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/starting-point-60cm.40318/


----------



## Straight Shooter (3 Apr 2016)

Just buy one small rock of each. Place in water for one week. Note pH KH GH at the beginning, then take these readings again after a week. Any change, not inert. Small change? Good enough for most applications. Big change? Maybe better for livestock that prefers those conditions.


----------



## dw1305 (5 Apr 2016)

Hi all,


Heagney said:


> Do you think any of the rocks will be ok in an aquarium?
> 
> 
> The cream coloured rock in the first photo is Cotswold (Jurassic) limestone, and it will raise the pH because it is pretty soft and flaky. The rock on the left looks like a Carboniferous Limestone (Black Rock series or similar), it won't have much effect on pH or hardness, because it is very hard.
> ...


----------



## dw1305 (5 Apr 2016)

Hi all,
Apologies I seem to have managed to type inside the quote, my bit should have said:





> The cream coloured rock in the first photo is Cotswold (Jurassic) limestone, and it will raise the pH because it is pretty soft and flaky. The rock on the left looks like a Carboniferous Limestone (Black Rock series or similar), it won't have much effect on pH or hardness, because it is very hard.
> 
> All the rounded cobbles will be pretty inert, because only very hard rocks form rounded cobbles in moving water, and if the rocks were at all soluble they would long ago have dissolved.
> 
> cheers Darrel


----------



## zozo (5 Apr 2016)

The last photo is a darn nice rock..  Would love to dive into that bucket. And as you can see with that black rock, looks like broken pieces from some quarry and then machine tumbled to get the sharp edges off and make them smooth. That's why those sticking out edges look lighter in color.. Can look nice at first sight but once submersed this smoothy look will rather pop out and look very unnatural. Rock just doens't weather naturaly like that.


----------



## Heagney (6 Apr 2016)

Thanks very much for all the info guys. I do really like a few of the rocks!


----------



## Tommytwotens (12 Apr 2016)

At least three of those types of rock will be fine I think... they have slate ( the sharp blueish green one) granite and sandstone there I think which are all aquatic safe. You just want to watch out for any containing limestone as this drastically raises pH.  As others have said the acid test will let you know if limestone or not. But I would ask someone in store to show me their slate/ granite. They would know or be able to find out 

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk


----------



## JMorgan (14 Apr 2016)

A tip I picked up from the DIY Joey bloke on you tube - take a knife with you and scratch the rocks. If it skitters off the hardness of the rock compares well to the hardness of steel. A very quick and easy test that eliminates the worst offenders (assuming you don't WANT your water's TDS going up) and then you can drip some HCl acid on the ones you like the look of. I got some acid a few months back cos I'm always trying to help my 11 year old see the practical application of science. We had loads of fun finding different rocks to test . . .  carefully obviously!
Quite how teachers manage to make something as inherently interesting as chemistry so dull in the classroom is beyond me . . . apologies to anyone reading this who's an inspiring science teacher!
cheers


----------

