# Any thoughts on these rocks???



## 69183 (Apr 25, 2011)

So I'm just starting up my Cichlid tank and getting things ready. Through reading on here, unless I misunderstood, limestone is good for Cichlid tank as it can help maintain the higher PH levels. So I found some limestone. They're older pavers that have been sitting around for a few years. Any issues with taking these and breaking up some of the larger pieces and using them for the tank decoration?


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## Number6 (Mar 13, 2003)

Why break em up? Huge rocks in an aquarium can look phenomenal...

If you do break them up, they can have sharp edges so be prepared to hammer (or otherwise sull) all sharp edges. My personal advice is to keep the rock "together" even if broken up. It can look really great in a tank if the rocks look like they have natural cracks/ fissures.

You'll want to make sure these pavers were no where that they could have been sprayed with weed killers, pesticides, oil... if there is a remote chance, then bleach, powerwash, whatever your methods but get them clean. IF they definately had toxic substances on em, I wouldn't use them personally.


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## 69183 (Apr 25, 2011)

Number6 said:


> Why break em up? Huge rocks in an aquarium can look phenomenal...
> 
> If you do break them up, they can have sharp edges so be prepared to hammer (or otherwise sull) all sharp edges. My personal advice is to keep the rock "together" even if broken up. It can look really great in a tank if the rocks look like they have natural cracks/ fissures.
> 
> You'll want to make sure these pavers were no where that they could have been sprayed with weed killers, pesticides, oil... if there is a remote chance, then bleach, powerwash, whatever your methods but get them clean. IF they definately had toxic substances on em, I wouldn't use them personally.


They were supposedly never used. But I was planning on bleaching/power washing them before putting them in the aquarium. As for breaking them up, its a 75 gallon aquarium and I'm not sure some of them will fit in. I'll be picking them up tonight.


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## Nina_b (Jan 3, 2011)

awesome rocks, post pics when you have them in!


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## 69183 (Apr 25, 2011)

Wasn't as many as there appear to be in the picture. I'll probably have to find some more. But think they'll look nice once they're in there. Debating on whether or not to get a piece of texas holey rock to put in there with it all. But I keep thinkiing it would look funny.


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## 69183 (Apr 25, 2011)

Lol... OK, so a few rocks go a long way. Went and got some more today and ended up I don't think I really needed them. Here's what I have so far, I know it looks like it goes past the ends of the aquarium, but they don't. The pieces of quarter round ar the edges of the aquarium. I might have to make the depth a little shorter though, might not be enough space in the front. About how much room will the fish need between the rocks and the front of the aquarium?


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## adam0444 (Apr 16, 2011)

I like iit. What I have found with my tanks is that it you make it more of a half circle rather than just a wall of rocks it tends to look better


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

The fish only need the width of the fish. The fishkeeper may want the width of a python siphon attachment to facilitate cleaning substrate and scraping glass.

You are trying to make spaces on the sand surrounded by rocks for each male to claim as territory.

Your arrangement looks cool. :thumb: The fish might like the spaces in between to be a little tighter (barely fish sized) and that would also add to the stability of the stack.


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## Riceburner (Sep 3, 2008)

I like to see the fish as much as possible, so create tunnels for the most part. Mine also seem to prefer tunnels to caves. Guess that way they don't feel trapped.


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## 69183 (Apr 25, 2011)

Too high? To much? Still need to add the other 3 bags of substrate too.


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## theconverted (Jan 21, 2010)

looks good.. dont get mad if some mov :dancing: e, haha, the currant and fish can make some fall


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## theconverted (Jan 21, 2010)

oh and not too high or too much.. add as much as you want, they love rocks.. the more rocks you have, the more fish you can have


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## 69183 (Apr 25, 2011)

theconverted said:


> oh and not too high or too much.. add as much as you want, they love rocks.. the more rocks you have, the more fish you can have


Almost sounds like an oxymoron there... Would think more rocks = less water = less fish. But I see your point. Took me about an hour and half to 2 hours to those rocks in there. Switching out the smaller rocks left and right to make sure the bigger ones were stable. Not worried about the rocks moving....falling is another story, that's what scares me. 300lbs of rock hitting the side of a glass aquarium filled with water..... eek.

Better picture:


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## Anthraxx8500 (Feb 11, 2011)

sounds like you may be concerned. try bringing the pile down a bit. my fish just love them some rock piles. places they can go and u cant see them imo. also if the rock weighs more then a pound i wouldnt worry too much about the fish moving it. itd just be u. for this reason i make sure when building my rock piles that everything sits reallly nicely. if it doesnt all lock together i take it down until it does. never had problems from my piles. gl to ya


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## jbarilow (Apr 25, 2011)

I have the same question....

I live in Northeast Ohio and close enough to Rocky River that I took a little trip to gather up some rocks. Below are pics of the location and the rocks. Anyone that lives around here that knows good or bad about using rocks from Rocky River would be appreciated. Also I am no rock expert, so if anything sticks out please let me know. The light grey ones seem pretty fragile, not sure if it is shale or what, and if it is even good to use (although they look neat).


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## biglove (Jan 4, 2010)

jbarilow said:


> I have the same question....
> 
> I live in Northeast Ohio and close enough to Rocky River that I took a little trip to gather up some rocks. Below are pics of the location and the rocks. Anyone that lives around here that knows good or bad about using rocks from Rocky River would be appreciated. Also I am no rock expert, so if anything sticks out please let me know. The light grey ones seem pretty fragile, not sure if it is shale or what, and if it is even good to use (although they look neat).


Certainly looks like shale. Be cautious if there are any chemical plants upstream that dump "treated" water into that river. Also, houseboats are notorious for flushing their treated waste into rivers.


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## jbarilow (Apr 25, 2011)

To the best of my knowledge there is no dumping going on and this river is running through our Metroparks and no house boats or the like have I ever seen anywhere near this. Pretty much just people standing in the shallow waters.

As for the shale, is that only the greyish rocks or you thinking all of it? I was wondering if maybe the non grey rocks were sandstone possibly.

Would it be best to stay away from the shale?


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## 69183 (Apr 25, 2011)

jbarilow said:


> To the best of my knowledge there is no dumping going on and this river is running through our Metroparks and no house boats or the like have I ever seen anywhere near this. Pretty much just people standing in the shallow waters.
> 
> As for the shale, is that only the greyish rocks or you thinking all of it? I was wondering if maybe the non grey rocks were sandstone possibly.
> 
> Would it be best to stay away from the shale?


I think shale is OK, I saw some in Aquarium Adventure the other day. Had someone tell me that shale was ok a few weeks ago when I was looking for limestone.


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## Anthraxx8500 (Feb 11, 2011)

shale is fine for use in tanks. in fact many species of SA/CA egg layers will prefer it as a medium for egg laying. not sure of how well it works with africans *** just used lace rock personally. let me know how it works out


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## Oscar Madison (Mar 24, 2008)

biglove said:


> jbarilow said:
> 
> 
> > I have the same question....
> ...


I grew up close to The Rocky River and you are correct.....a lot of of shale. You can see the cliffs along the river in the MetroParks are mostly shale.


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## Chunkanese (Feb 4, 2011)

Brace the rocks up against the back glass that way you dont risk them falling. Make sure no rocks just sit on top of sand or gravel, make sure they are flat on the glass.


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## cichlidfish348 (Jun 1, 2011)

jbarilow said:


> I have the same question....
> 
> I live in Northeast Ohio and close enough to Rocky River that I took a little trip to gather up some rocks. Below are pics of the location and the rocks. Anyone that lives around here that knows good or bad about using rocks from Rocky River would be appreciated. Also I am no rock expert, so if anything sticks out please let me know.  The light grey ones seem pretty fragile, not sure if it is shale or what, and if it is even good to use (although they look neat).


They should be safe in your tank, just make sure that you clean them extremely well.


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## cichlidfish348 (Jun 1, 2011)

sboisvert said:


> Too high? To much? Still need to add the other 3 bags of substrate too.


I don't know what kind of cichlids you plan on keeping in your aquarium, but most cichlids prefer an open swimming area either on one side or on the top half of the tank.

I suggest not stacking them so high, especially because they might fall down(cichlids like digging). This has happened to me before, and now I create my rock formations outside of the tank and glue them together with a clear silicone. It works well


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## 69183 (Apr 25, 2011)

cichlidfish348 said:


> sboisvert said:
> 
> 
> > Too high? To much? Still need to add the other 3 bags of substrate too.
> ...


Demasoni, yellow lab, socolofi, yellow tailed acei. They seem to be doing well. There's actually a fair amount of open space on the sides, front, back and top. All of them love darting through all the caves/tunnels. I'm still probably going to take some of them out and rearrange.


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## adam0444 (Apr 16, 2011)

I think th rock looks really good. nice job


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## Errol (May 30, 2011)

Hi sboisvert,
You rocks! Awesome work. I hope your fishes like the renovation 
Do take some closeups of your aquarium so I could see your fishes also.


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## 69183 (Apr 25, 2011)

Errol said:


> Hi sboisvert,
> You rocks! Awesome work. I hope your fishes like the renovation
> Do take some closeups of your aquarium so I could see your fishes also.


Thanks, I will say with this rock formation it is very difficult to vacuum the gravel and get a fish out if necessary. Took me 4 days to catch one that had pop-eye so I could put him/her in the hospital tank. All of these were taken before I finished the canopy, so I only had 2 of the 4 daylight strips (LEDs) running and they were just sitting on the glass. I'll have to take another one with the canopy on as the aquarium looks much brighter and nicer with all 6 (4 daylight, 2 moonlight) strips sitting about a foot above the top.

Here's a few videos I shot with the cell phone:

http://s1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb433/sboisvert74/?action=view&current=VIDEO0005.mp4

http://s1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb433/sboisvert74/?action=view&current=VIDEO0002.mp4

Moonlighting (camera makes it look darker than it is)

http://s1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb433/sboisvert74/?action=view&current=VIDEO0003.mp4


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## Riceburner (Sep 3, 2008)

mine is set up very similarly. I tear it apart every week at WC time and it goes back together almost exactly as it was.


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## Lombardo2nd (May 28, 2011)

I also live in north east Ohio and have been using rock from the grand river. I bleach it then soak it in some vinegar water before putting it in the tank. Has worked well so far.


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## ThatKidCash (Jun 7, 2011)

Good setup in my opinion OP. Maybe just taking one level off would help, play engineer with 'em.

When prepping rocks I... 
-Power wash
-Soak in ~10-15% Bleach solution for ~3-4 hours
-Power wash 
-Soak in fresh water for ~6 hours
-Change the water and soak overnight
-Power wash
-Sun dry


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## t_honeysett (May 15, 2011)

If your really woried about them moving I used silicone to keep my cichlid caves in place and you can barely see it unless you know its there.


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## rlaspo (Sep 9, 2009)

looks great, i have a 45 gallon hexagon tank and was looking to build a pile of rocks similar to those, worried about them tumbling. What types of rock are those??


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## 69183 (Apr 25, 2011)

rlaspo said:


> looks great, i have a 45 gallon hexagon tank and was looking to build a pile of rocks similar to those, worried about them tumbling. What types of rock are those??


Limestone, some of it is pavers I picked up off CL and some of it Olentangy Limestone I got at a landscaping company. The round rocks are just river rocks I got at the landscaper as well.


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