just bought some base rock

[Meloco14]

I went to a building supply store today and found some perfect base rock. It is Apache Pot rock. It is like lava rock but much more dense. It is still very porous though. The shapes are perfect, there are some flat, some square, for the base, and some pieces with natural little caves and tunnels in them. And the best part was the price, 45 cents a pound! Right now I have it curing in a trash can, I just want to monitor the water chemistry and make sure this rock doesn't change it somehow. Hopefully it will be fine. Its a lot cheaper than the $2 a pound marshall base rock I was gonna buy

 

[doc_slick]

Sounds like this might be viable. If this is real lava rock, make sure that there are no heavy metals in trace amounts in the rock. I know of several commercial aquariums that use volcanic rock as base rock. Some do very well while others have the devil with silicates, and phosporous, and others with iron and other metals. Let me know how your test results turn out.

 

[Meloco14]

Thanks for the tip, I'll get some more test kits and let you know

 

[doc_slick]

This may help you some. I found it earlier today and it has information you might find helpful.http://saltaquarium.about.com/library/weekly/aa111901g.htm

 

[Meloco14]

Thanks for the link. Looks like some types of lava rock work and some don't. I'm pretty sure this rock is volcanic but it's a lot more dense than lava, and it doesn't have that glassy appearance. So we'll see what happens. Tonight I found a little phosphate in the water, and for some reason a lot of ammonia. I can't imagine where this is coming from, isn't it usually from the die off of organisms? This rock was completely dry. Maybe there were some small insects in it or something. I ordered a silicate and iron test today, so I'll get those results as soon as i can. I might have to be curing this stuff pretty long to see if the levels eventually go away. Oh well

 

[doc_slick]

Yes usually ammonia is the result of organism die off, but you have to remember that ammonia is produces by chemical reaction l. All you need for this reaction is free hydrogen and nitrogen. Since H2O is covalently bonded, it is realitively easy to strip the elements apart. And most rock obtained from terrestrial sources has plant and animal matter in or on it, especially if it is porous. This ammonia level should go away on it's own, but you might consider changing the curing water daily for a week or so and taking your tests right before you change it. That way you can see the improvement it makes form day to day.

 

[doc_slick]

Yes usually ammonia is the result of organism die off, but you have to remember that ammonia is produces by chemical reaction l. All you need for this reaction is free hydrogen and nitrogen. Since H2O is covalently bonded, it is realitively easy to strip the elements apart. And most rock obtained from terrestrial sources has plant and animal matter in or on it, especially if it is porous. This ammonia level should go away on it's own, but you might consider changing the curing water daily for a week or so and taking your tests right before you change it. That way you can see the improvement it makes form day to day.

 

[Meloco14]

Yeah I changed the water today and took readings with the new water. Ammonia was 0, so I'll just keep doing water changes and see if it steadily declines.