Blaydehawk Posted October 2, 2015 Report Share Posted October 2, 2015 Hi all, long time reader and first time poster. As title suggests I'm new to this hobby, and was basically "forced" into it by my older brother who has a ton of freshwater tanks and twisted my arm into joining in lol Now to the specifics of my current tank. I have acquired a 4 foot tank from said brother, and am in the final stages of my fish keeping equipment ( filters/media/lighting etc ) and find myself technically fish ready. But where I think me and my brother are different is in regards to me being what I would like to think more artistically driven. And this forum has a wealth of knowledge in regards to aquascaping, I would like to dabble myself in this field. I inherited a bunch of multicoloured pebbles with the tank, and the tank has a red rock fake rock wall on the back. Im looking at not adding the pebbles as they look unnatural, maybe adding some red clay looking finer pebbles as a base and am hoping to find a safe slate like rock which is red earth coloured to build caves and a maybe a natural looking arch. So my question is this, a lot of posts say go to local landscaping supplies and look around, but as I will have fish in the tank the last thing I want to do is have a rock leaching bad minerals etc into tank and killing my fish or bacteria in canister. I'm hoping an expert here can point me in the direction of a good rock media that comes in slate, rock and pebble form, that I can buy locally at a landscaping supply, bring home, clean and boil and get to it? Couple of pointers as its my first tank I'm going to have a bunch of South American Cichlids so it needs to be safe PH wise for them. And I'm wondering if pavers with a polished side are safe if broken up to look natural? Any and all advice is greatly appreciated, I apologise for wall of text and thanks for having me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingerbeer Posted October 2, 2015 Report Share Posted October 2, 2015 WSelcome to the forum. Suggest put up a post in the aquascape section. I like your path going natural, but I do tend to like getting stuff from someone who has already decided it is OK for aquarium, especially some of the rock products. I drove Techy at the Tech Den crazy searching though his rock collection..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blaydehawk Posted October 2, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2015 I've managed to snap up some Pisces Yellow strat from a fellow forum user earlier today. I'm hoping to pick them up Sunday. So that's a good starting point I think. I'm just curious to know Landscaping businesses with different rock types people have successfully used to increase my scope. I've been brainstorming like crazy last 2 days lol Sent from my HTC_Desire_320 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
