Best And Cheapish Rocks For Mbuna Setup?

[guppy_man]

im hoping to start a mbuna very soon, but first i need to rehome my fish that are in the tank atm, i want to start buying some stuff for the mbuna setup, including rock.
what do you think the best rocks to use in the tank are, and preferably quite cheap?

i want to stack rocks up at the back of the tank with some smaller rocks in the middle, any ideas?

thanks

 

[Cheffi]

Large cobbles from places like B & Q look nice. Ocean rock can be bought from ebay around 25kg for £25 ish. There are usually people selling rock on various forums and AC. Also can use Lava rock, tuffa rock. Personally I think the large cobbles look best and most natural.

 

[denis coghlan]

The cheapest rock in my opinion is free rock!! Go for a walk in the country side and see what you can find!


Free rock!

 

[Cheffi]

Over here I believe you are not supposed to 'lift' cobbles from the beaches. Maybe we should organise a coach trip over to Ireland and you could put us up show us the best cobble lifting area's

 

[denis coghlan]

Its actually illegal to do it here too. In fact this is a quote from the goverment web site.

Every person who shall remove any beach material from any foreshore or seashore in contravention of a prohibitory order shall be guilty of an offence under this section and shall be liable on summary conviction thereof in the case of a first offence, to a fine not exceeding ten pounds, and, in the case of a second or any subsequent offence, to a fine of ten pounds and, in every case to forfeiture of the beach material so removed.

It only cost you ten pounds if you get caught so you will most likely be saving money on the rocks in the long run!! Its pure economics!!!!

 

[AshBreed]

im hoping to start a mbuna very soon, but first i need to rehome my fish that are in the tank atm, i want to start buying some stuff for the mbuna setup, including rock.
what do you think the best rocks to use in the tank are, and preferably quite cheap?

i want to stack rocks up at the back of the tank with some smaller rocks in the middle, any ideas?

thanks

I think that cost is a very important part of setting up an aquarium but if it means waiting another month to save up the money to buy the rocks that look good to you then maybe you should wait.

Dont forget that its you that has to look at it everyday not your bank account.

 

[KimA]

Hi,

Got my cobbles from a local stone merchants who are based in a garden centre - cost £23 for 52kg - about 10 large cobbles.

 

[Nick Sw]

Stone Merchants are the cheapest legal way to obtain rocks.
B & Q River Cobbles and Wyevale garden centres seem to be popluar.

 

[Cheffi]

Check out nicksw's tank shots. He has very large cobbles in it and the effect is quite stunning.

 

[boshank23]

i have a big bucket of lava rock for sale.
cheap as chips.

 

[fish-r-fancy]

I buy rock that is called lace rock. Looks nice and is pretty cheap.

 

[BiffMalawi]

I haven't been to Wales for years, so my memory is a little weak.

What about rock quarries? Here in Canada some of our quarries dump truck loads of free rock in the parking lot. Helps stop people from climbing the fence. lol Of course that is more fun. I scooped 30kg of sparkling white calcium carbonate rocks from one . They look great and buffer my Ph too.

Try googling quarries and see what's around.

 

[tropheus addict]

Hi all ive got a tangenika setup with just tropheus i got my sand and lime stone from beside a carp fishing lake piles and piles of the stuff just took it home and scrubbed and scrubbed try and avoid any rusty looking colours in lime and sand its normally iron ore if your light cycles right for cichlids then they all end up green anyway so no point inbspending loads or any for that matter (sand and lime stone should bump up ph too)

 

[nitey4ever]

I haven't been to Wales for years, so my memory is a little weak.

What about rock quarries? Here in Canada some of our quarries dump truck loads of free rock in the parking lot. Helps stop people from climbing the fence. lol Of course that is more fun. I scooped 30kg of sparkling white calcium carbonate rocks from one . They look great and buffer my Ph too.

Try googling quarries and see what's around.

Geez Biff...if it weren't so darn expensive to ship rocks, I'd say send some over to Alberta! Got my slate out of the mountains...2 huge bags, and it wasn't nearly enough.

For anyone 'lifting' rocks, just remember to 'sanitize' them first. Boil them, bake them, etc. to get the local organisms off of them.

 

[skiltrip]

i collect local rocks, all sizes... mostly granite. looks cool, and free. i just scrub them with soap and a toothbrush, then boil or bake them and rinse again like crazy. (after they have cooled!)