Lava rock

[GreenBay1]

I just wanted to ask if you could use lava rock for landscaping and aquarium epoxy to build rocks to use in your system. Make the shapes you want then seed it with some good live rock.
Thanks in advance.

 

[gman0526]

No lava rock for your tank, leaches too many nasties (heavy metals).

 

[Eldredge]

I have been wondering the same thing. Back in the 70's I had a 300 gallon saltwater tank. Back then things were a lot more primitive, but I used a lot of lava rock. It was believed at that time that lava rock was the only rock safe to use because the extreme heat removed all of the metal from the rock. I am hoping to get back into this hobby, and i really like the look of the lava rock. It didn't seem to create any problems back then, but a lot was "hit and miss", and we didn't keep any corals.

 

[Ooulophilia]

There is a lot of Fe (iron) that can leach out of lava rock - it contributes to plant (algae) growth

 

[SCR]

I've tried it ,without much luck. See if you can do a search for "feather rock", you'll find all the info about it.

 

[DKKA]

I like live rock better, but....I used red lava rock to set up my first reef tank (almost 15 years ago.....) I did have a longer bout with HA when the tank was new. But I was a newbie, so don't know if I can blame the rock.
I still have one chunk of lava rock in my tank getting covered in zoanthids.


Dan