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camtag
08-05-2003, 4:01 AM
Complete newbe surfing the site, and would like clarification re the use of lava rock. A friend (who uses lava rock in his freshwater chiclid tank) took me to a landscaping supply in Vancouver where they had a wide variety of lavarock - from small chunks to massive boulders - cheap,cheap,cheap! I picked up some of the usual red, but they had a good selection of purples and charcoals as well. I now see a few differing opinions re lava rock on this site in re to leaching metals, and I am wondering if adding this into my first tank was such a good idea? I boiled the heck out of it first. My friend has suffered no problems with his lava rock - only that it is harder to keep clean. Would a pleco in the tank clean this type of rock?
I am just getting a 72 gallon up and running, with a Fluvol404, a couple of 200 watt thermostats, and air stones along the back. I have had the tank running for about 2 weeks now, and added water conditioner in with the initial water, and also the Cycle. I have been reading the thread on the fishless cycle, and will give it a try before introducing fish.
Also, I picked up some neat saltwater shells (large conch types), and I was wondering if anyone has had any luck in coating these with some sort of epoxy resin so they could be used in a freshwater tank? Any comments would be appreciated

Pink Pat
08-05-2003, 10:18 PM
camtag,

The lava rock is suitable for use in the FW aquarium as long as the colors don't leech out. Soak some in a white bucket for a week and see if any color comes out. If so, I'd skip the colored rock and stick to natural flavors only.

and I was wondering if anyone has had any luck in coating these with some sort of epoxy resin so they could be used in a freshwater tank?

--Depending on what you are going to do with the aquarium you may or may not want to coat the shells. Coating them however will make them inert.

HTH

PP

Matak
08-18-2003, 8:29 PM
Coating with epoxy will give it an unatural "glossy" look. If you use epoxy, let it cure for at least a week at room temps to be sure that it is fully cured.