Greenstone?

[This Old Spouse]

I'm in Ely, Minnesota, and most of this area sits on what's called "Ely Greenstone." It's very beautiful, but I'm unsure as to whether I could use it in my aquarium. Here's what I found:

"Greenstone is a non-foliated metamorphic rock derived from basalt or chemically equivalent rock such as gabbro. Greenstones contain sodium-rich plagioclase feldspar, chlorite, and epidote, as well as quartz. The chlorite and epidote make greenstones green. "

 

[StandbySetting]

Basalt based rocks can be attacked by weak acids, releasing cations such as Calcium, Magnesium and Sodium, this will raise your General hardness and the buffering capacity, which may lead to a PH increase.

 

[This Old Spouse]

That might be a good thing, as my pH is relatively low, around 6.8. I posted in another topic about my rams horn snails that have white bands, probably due to a lack of calcium. Might the greenstone help?

 

[StandbySetting]

It could well do yes.

 

[drobbyb]

Also, with a pH that low have a read in the article linked in my signature. My pH is also 6.8 from the tap and I need to take special measures since my GH and KH values are also <1. It will help you quite a bit with your calcium problem