hello my boyfriend and i recently bought a 125 gallon tank and we live right on a lake. We found gravel at our LFS to be way over priced. I was wondering if cleaned properly would it be possible to use the gravel found in the lake here?
If it is a nice clean lake you could. I have natural rock from lake tahoe in my 55 gal tank. Certain types of rock can alter your ph, so you might want to do a fishless cycle on the tank, then test the PH from start to finish. If the lake is heavy in polutants Id rather not use it.
Your best bet would be to purchase gravel from a store of some sort. You never know what chemicals have soaked into the rocks and it would be a shame to lose a whole tank due to the rocks added.
i have what blkwdw13 said in my tank. i really like it. it has light to dark gravel. there are a few diffrent kinds. the only thing you have to do is clean it really well.