Rocks for my cichlid tank

[colen]

I need to purchase a lot of rocks for my cichlid tank and I am thinking either limestone or lava rock. I like the looks of both.

Won't limestone raise my PH? If so, is this something I should worry about/consider while purchasing rocks?

Thanks for the help,
Colen.

 

[freddyk]

Yes, limestone will probably raise your PH some, but this is not a bad thing for a Rift Lake cichlid tank, just don't use it in soft water tanks.

 

[Nizzo]

Hi colen,

I agree...limestone helping to raise PH is beneficial in an african lake biotope anyway...

I got mine as big lumps from the rockery crates at the garden centre - Much cheaper than by the kilo from LFS.

And had a whale of a time (covering them with a blanket to protect the windows!) smashing them up with a sledgehammer

N.B. take a little pot of vinegar with you to the GC and drip onto anything with a metalllic looking content........if it fizzes, DONT buy it for the tank.

You look pretty silly & smell awful ...but it's worth it!

 

[OzzieGirl]

Great point Nizzo I'm going to be looking for some rocks myself in the coming weeks so that was a great tip about the vinegar.

 

[freddyk]

If it fizzes it only means there's calcium carbonate in the rock - this is not a bad thing, this is exactly the type of thing that buffers the PH.

 

[Nizzo]

OK,

I am going to contradict myself a bit here, because Freddyk is absolutely right.

The calcite in the 'soft' rocks such as limestone will certainly fizz, and ARE v.good for raising your tank PH as they slowly 'dissolve' into your water.

My point was more specifically regarding the "metallic" looking streaks or 'seams' that are in some types of rock.

Obviously limestone doesn't have a mettalic looking content at all, and so wouldn't be of a concern regarding this in the first place.

I am very willing to learn differently, but I was always led to beleive that those types of rocks where vinegar reacts with 'metal', could leach those harmful metals into the water causing adverse effects to fish....?

 

[Ewok]

I'm only new but that's been my experience too, where you're referring to the metal seams. So yeah I agree. I was also taught to be careful where the rocks have "sparkly" bits when wet, such as a lot of quartz & ironstone, for the same reason, the sparkle is usually metals & not so good. Just IMO & IME.