Using Lava rock as a freshwater version of Live rock?

I have been wondering about this for a while now and I've begun to test it out but I forgot I don't have any new tanks to set up and I wanted to see what others thought. My idea is that by keeping crushed and chunks of lava rock in a well established cycled aquarium, you could use them to seed a new aquarium and help it cycle- acting as a sort of live rock. Since lava rock is very porous it can house a lot of BB, making it a good seeding material.
Any thoughts on if this could be a viable option in boosting the cycling of a tank, would it make a noticeable difference? Otherwise several of my tanks are pointlessly full of lava rock now. I even have a little Tupperware thing of finely crushed lava rock sitting at the bottom of a tank lol.

 

Lava rock will help cycle a tank and is great for seeding. I use crushed lava rock in my canister filter along with filter media and use both for seeding a tank and it’s worked flawlessly

 

I have been wondering about this for a while now and I've begun to test it out but I forgot I don't have any new tanks to set up and I wanted to see what others thought. My idea is that by keeping crushed and chunks of lava rock in a well established cycled aquarium, you could use them to seed a new aquarium and help it cycle- acting as a sort of live rock. Since lava rock is very porous it can house a lot of BB, making it a good seeding material.
Any thoughts on if this could be a viable option in boosting the cycling of a tank, would it make a noticeable difference? Otherwise several of my tanks are pointlessly full of lava rock now. I even have a little Tupperware thing of finely crushed lava rock sitting at the bottom of a tank lol.

I, like AggressiveAquatics, use lava rock in my canister filter and it works incredibly well! The only downsize I could think of is if you put larger pieces into your filter it is harder to move them around and get a good, exact fit for the media bin.

 

Well im glad my efforts have not been for nothing!

 

Yeah it works