Live rock

[hawkboys10]

Has anyone ever attempted to take clean rock out of a pasture, roadside, etc, clean it and use it as base rock for your saltwater aquarium?

 

[reeffreak]

I'm not a chemist so I'm going to try to explain this.

The rocks on the road are not of the same composition as the ones from the ocean.The ones from the ocean are old vocanic(limestone)rock and dead coral skeletons.Never ever put just any ole rocks in a saltwater tank.

 

[fatman]

Red is iron, green is arsenic and it goes on and on. Stick to reef rock or calcium carbonate , which used to be reef rock. Aragonite or calcium carbonate are principally the words you look for. Tufa is OK. No quartz, no river rock or river sand, no silica sand. Usually anything rock or gravel that is is colored (anything but white, grey or beige which -maybe- might be safe) is best avoided. Not many choices. Another way to look at it is, "If it isn't covered with marine growth or you now it once wasn't keep it away from your tank."

 

[Doc]

you are looking for lots of pourous surface area for the bacteria to grow. roadside rock just doesn't have the amount of crevices and holes that the lava rock or dead coral does. it would take too much rock to get the bacteria growth you need for bio-filtration in your tank

-Doc

 

[fatman]

Cheapest, safe, porous, natural, quality large rocks I know of for reef tanks. Ancient reef rocks.
Rock