hd/lowes red lava rock - tank safe?

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I

id10t

Candiru
MFK Member
Jun 3, 2005
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Anyone know if the red lava rock that home depot/lowes sells for $3/bag is tank safe?

Its light in weight (esp. for rock) and has nice uniform unevenness (oxymoron...) and looks like it would be good to build arches, etc. with by siliconing/gluing the rocks to eachother...

But is it tank safe? Anyone have experience with it?
 
Rinse it well first, but yes it is tank safe as long as nothing has gotten on it (sprays etc.)

Do be careful of rough or sharp edges that can harm your fish,

They also have a 'feather rock' (lowes for sure) that can be carved out for caves.

Dr Joe

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Don't try silicone to join the rock, it won't adhere correctly. Use an aquarium epoxy for permanently binding these rocks. Check petsolutions.com or other on-line aquarium supply merchants for several choices in these epoxy products.
 
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I was holding some of the feather rock at HD earlier today, it seemed a tad flakey and gypsum-ey... sorta dissmissed it out of hand based on that... but if it is fish safe...
 
Feather rock is fish safe in that it does nothing to the water. Work with it for a while with bare hands and you'll get an idea what it can do to your fish. Maybe for small fish, but if the big guys spook they will lose some scales.
 
then it would be perfectly fine as the first layer of substrate below Eco, Flourite or ADA soils. I would think it would be very effective with the Additives Penac, Bacter 100, etc. It is incredibly economical.
 
I wouldn't do it. Actually i would if I rinsed it very, very well as previously mentioned but I don't have the patience. Use it as filter media and pool sand as substrate. Again, the time and energy required to rinse it and make it safe for your aquarium may not be worth ur time.
 
I’ve also used it for filtration with no issues....I forget which but Lowe’s or Home Depot has a finer lava rock that would be better under substrate
 
Bought mine from Home Depot i my sump. Just rained off the dust and the pulverized pieces.
 
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