# Red Lava Rock Pebbles



## deezdrama (Jul 9, 2005)

Just bought a huge bag, just checking to make sure its safe to use for bio media in my canisters. And maybe put some scattered ontop of my gravel?


----------



## GlassblowRBPown (Apr 4, 2005)

depends on the lavarock. ive heard some types can buffer the water. some can be treated with crap too.


----------



## deezdrama (Jul 9, 2005)

hmmm- anyone else have an opinion???


----------



## deezdrama (Jul 9, 2005)

Check out what I found on the web
"LAVA ROCK

This is a fairly lightweight rock with a lot of crevasses, which in turn means good surface area. Due to its irregular shape it tends not to clog up. It is a fairly inexpensive media. Because of the crevasses in it, it is likely that it performs some denitrification (the conversion of nitrate to nitrogen gas by anaerobic bacteria). It doesn't have the same high surface area of some of the manmade media available today. However, if the filter size can be large enough this is a sure winner due to cost and maintenance. This media is underrated and overlooked. The reason behind this is that people trying to sell media can't make money on it because it is available at a low cost anywhere. The remaining media are manmade and as a result their use can become quite expensive. "

This stuff does seem like the perfect bio media!!!! Its light weight and very porous like biomax ceramic rings, but I got a huge 50lb bag for $2.50 - I will soak it for a few days to make sure but otherwise I dont know why anyone would pay so much for biomax and similar media. I think this stuff will look great scattered over my river rock pea gravel as well as stuffing my canisters with it-it will have a nice amazon earthy tone!


----------



## mashunter18 (Jan 2, 2004)

Should be fine in your filters, for substrate, I would mix it in with the gravel, put it on the bottem....


----------



## deezdrama (Jul 9, 2005)

anyone else run this for bio media?


----------



## Tinkerbelle (Oct 14, 2004)

no idea about biomedia but i have some of it in my tank as caves for the fish... i've used one of them to seed another tank with bacteria, seems like it did a good job... cut the cycle off by a week.


----------



## fishofury (May 10, 2003)

I have used it in my wet dry before and it worked great. You have to rinse the hell out of it though


----------



## SAFETYpin (Feb 1, 2004)

deezdrama said:


> Just bought a huge bag, just checking to make sure its safe to use for bio media in my canisters. And maybe put some scattered ontop of my gravel?
> [snapback]1200470[/snapback]​


I used to have some large pieces of lava rock in my tank. I think its a major contributor to why half of my fish are blind now. My P's used to freak out from the light or to much movement and they would just dart in any direction. They really tore up there eyes. Ive only heard good things about it as bio media though.


----------



## deezdrama (Jul 9, 2005)

cool- im going to rinse the crap out of it and put some in my canisters.


----------



## deezdrama (Jul 9, 2005)

I added some to my cichlid tank and think it looks good- it will look much better in my p tank with darker pea gravel and slate/driftwood. I think it did help the looks of my cichlid tank.


----------

