triaddad

I'm just in the planning stage of converting a 46g bow from a community tank to an African Cichlid one. In the area of NC I live in, we have a lot of sandstone and quartzite. Would these stones be ok to construct caves and hiding places for them?

Allie

Smooth rocks should boiled and soaked in water. Sandstone should be good. I am not sure about quartzite tho.

steveangela1

quartz is okay in fact I have a whole tail end of my jeep full of quartz/limestone/and sandstone for my new tank right now. I am also going to check out some new rock the landscaping place is supose to have (some holey limestone) if he has enough to do my tank I will use the other to re-do my 55g w/ bigger rocks.


just like Allie said though soak and boil the rocks, one trick I learned if you don't want to boil them bake the rocks, it will still sterilize them and you don't have to be splattered by boiling water just acheive the same high temps as boiling for about 20 min

FishFolk

How about granite?

voiceless_kat

I believe granite is ok. I have it in my tank. I use the vinegar test: If it fizzes, you should not use it. If it does not, it is ok to use.

I also am trying to fashion some hiding caves from rocks I gathered at the cabin. I soaked them for a week, but didn't boil them, and then scrubbed them well. They passed the vinegar test, but I worried since I can see what we used to call "fools gold" sparkling in them.

And I hadn't thought of something Allie mentioned:: smooth. These have some sharp edges I should prob work on. Hmmmmm

I saw pics of something called Texas holey rock.........it is soooo cool, but have no idea where a person could buy something like that.

Anyway, good luck with your caves!!

Val

steveangela1

after looking it up, under winkipedia the one thing that stuck out was this and I am quoting from winipedia " Granite contains around 10 to 20 parts per million of uranium, By contrast, more mafic rocks such as tonalite, gabbro or diorite have 1 to 5 ppm uranium, and limestones and sedimentary rocks usually have equally low amounts."

That one kind of turns me away from using granite in a fishtank, not to mention other properties like does it have metalic properties? I will have to ask my husband? He is the chem person in the house.

steveangela1

There are a bunch of online places to get the texas holey rock, on ebay and aquabid. thats basicly what I am getting from the 'landscaping guy" I can't wait to get my hands on it!

just do a yahoo search for texas holey rock, or on the auction sites.