Best place to buy aquarium safe wood/rocks?

[TrashPrince]

Wasn't sure where to post this, so I hope here is okay.

Currently the best/most affordable place I've found is Amazon, specifically mopani, cholla, and slate pieces (which I do like). When I look elsewhere online it's either very small or very expensive, though I'm unfamiliar with a lot of aquarium only sites.

I don't have any local fish stores, and the best non chain pet store, that I will later buy fish from, has limited stone/wood that mostly appears very dirty.

So does anyone have suggestions for other places to buy from than Amazon that's not too expensive? I imagine I could find rocks at Home Depot or the like, though I don't know how safe they'd be for an aquarium.

Thanks for any advice you have!

 

[MoshJosh]

I’ve bought some on eBay myself with ok success.

you could source your own

I believe most rocks tend to be safe, I’ve used some from my backyard and areas near my house, but there are some “tests” you can do to help identify unsafe rocks, think it involves vinegar. . . worth a google.

for wood you can look up aquarium safe wood on google to find list of which ones are safe. Also you can watch Palmer Aquatics video about wood on YouTube.

some possibly cheaper alternatives might be:

exotera forest branch, it’s marketed for reptiles but I got some nice pieces for pretty cheap, just have to water log them or glue/tie them down.

artificial decor, I have a big plastic root I got at petsmart that looks pretty good.

“Pebbles” or river rock, depending on the size of your tank river rock can be made into a nice scape pretty easily, check out MD fish tanks on YouTube.

 

[MacZ]

Hardware stores, garden centres, landscape supply and building material supplies are in my experience the best price-value sources for rocks. Last year I bought 3 buckets (45kg) full of rocks for my cousin's paludarium project at the building material supply for 5€.
Only collecting from nature can be cheaper than that.