Hey guys, i bought a 50lb bag of pea pebbles and washed them for awile and then put them in my tank. I am going to eaise chichlids in there so will the pea gravel be safe for them? Also the water is still pretty cloudy
pea pebbles? yes or no?
- Thread starter GTkeeper
- Start date
Chill out. You bumped the thread after 4 minutes!GTkeeper;4411513; said:anyone?
Yes, pea gravel should be fine for them. I always buy substrates at hardware stores as opposed to fish stores (except for the occasional plant substrate or something).
andyjs;4411523; said:
kk thanks only thing i was worried about is i read it can screw with your ph
GTkeeper;4411538; said:
The pea gravel sold in hardware stores do not have enough minerals in the individual stones to effect the pH of the water. Just check the pH on a regular basis and make necessary pH adjustments as needed.
David K. Bradley;4411878; said:
k sounds good, also, i got up this morning and the wter is still cloudy. is this normal?
If the water is still cloudy, do a good sized water change. If its still cloudy after that, get some water clarifier and add that. It will cause the particles to clump together and be captured by the filter and/or settle out. Then maybe 24 hours after that do another water change.
The pea gravel I got a Lowe's raises hardness a lot but only affects pH slightly. It won't be an issue unless you've got wild amazon fish or something that is known to suffer in hardness. You could check your hardness in a couple of days and see what happens. If your water is hard already, you won't notice a thing. If your tapwater is amazon soft like mine, you might.
Ha ha. You're in California. I'll bet your water is already hard as a rock anyway.
Ha ha. You're in California. I'll bet your water is already hard as a rock anyway.
I use pea gravel in one of my tanks. It gives me a high KH and GH reading. Great for African cichlids, not so great for SA cichlids.
Which kind were you planning?
I was dumbfounded at how much I had to rinse that stuff. You probably didn't rinse it enough.
Which kind were you planning?
I was dumbfounded at how much I had to rinse that stuff. You probably didn't rinse it enough.
Watch your PH closely. I used gravel from home depot thinking that it would be safe. At first everything was fine my ph was 7.2 for the first week or so. I thought everything was fine and didn't test again until2 months later after I lost 2 small pbass I was growing out. The ph tested over 8.6! I started removing everything out of the tank but the ph stayed high. So I decided it had to be the gravel. I took a handfull of gravel out of the tank and let it dry. Then I put it in a bowl a poured vinegar in to see if there was a reaction. Sure enough some of the tiny pieces of gravel starting fizzing. So I removed all the gravel and put in pool filter sand. After a few water changes over the next couple weeks my ph is a stable at 7.4.
GTkeeper;4411506; said:
I have not read through your forum, I only saw your title......As far as pea gravel goes:
HOME DEPOT
Pea Gravel in the garden section
20-25lbs for only $3.99