Rock, Slate And Gravel From Garden Centres

[tenohfive]

I'm redoing a couple of tanks in the near future and will need a fair quantity of rock and slate for a river tank. Not a truckful, but a fair few kilo's. I'm not happy paying LFS prices if I can avoid it, so was wondering if anyone who's gone to garden centres for rock, slate and gravel before could recommend anywhere thats quite competetively priced?

 

[shelaghfishface]

i bought large sacks ( maybe 15 or maybe 20kg i cant remember) of slate chippings for £5.99 at dobbies and it was on offer.. buy 2 get one free ( was loads left to make caves with after too), stuff like pea gravel is generally much cheaper there too and often on offer, they also sell sacks of large rocks,stones.. i remeber thinking they were good prices, but avoided them as they were for jambos tank and could just see him shoving them thru the glass

maybe dobbies will have some prices online

if its larger slate you want.. ask the local bulider, they always have stacks laying about the yards

 

[tenohfive]

Its a mixture really. I'm trying to work out how I'm going to layout my river tank - another thread on it here. Think I'm maybe being greedy...want to keep rainbows, corys and danio's with some hillstream loaches. But the flow the loaches want would knock the socks off most active community tank members, and the highest temp I should really look at it 23 degrees.

Another option would be to setup a spare 65L I have in the study as well. I'd normally abandon an idea at this point, but I've really fallen for Sewellia Lineolata and have wanted to keep them for about a year.

Another option might be to stick with the 90L but using some bigger rocks and very big pieces of slate divide the tank in two - top and bottom. Top half with loads of flow, bottom half sheltered for danio's and corys.

Hmmm...hard work planning a tank like this, but I love it nonetheless.

 

[3ndl3r]

Don't think you have one local, but ACW prices are generally quite good.

 

[peteus2002]

Slate's a winner from your local gardening centre.

Got the slate for my tank for peanuts from the garden centre near me (Wyvale). My advice, pick out a big bit for £5'ish, get a hammer and a chisel and become a stone mason for the day (You'll pick it up surprisingly quickly).

Or pick off the shards that no one else will have and make them (the garden centre) an offer; if you're feeling cheeky!

 

[chr15_8]

i got mine from wyvale to. i have nine bits of rock and it came to around £45 iirc.

i then broke it into smaller pieces with a club hammer. i think i got 3 different colours and imo it looks quite good together as its not all the same

 

[blue acara]

You live in Hertfordshire? Go to Crews hill. There are a couple of places that sell just rocks/stones. Good selection and the prices arent bad.

 

[snowflake311]

I get my rocks from the beach or streams. NOT ocean beach I live on Lake Tahoe. Rocks are safe just scrub them or you could boil them too. I collected Granite pebbles from the beach and boiled them. I put them in my tank no problems.

You should not have to buy rocks. Just stay away some lime stone or any stone that will mess with your ph. Whats to check your rocks if you can't identify them. Use a few drops of acid. WHERE are you going to get acid? Simple your PH down is a strong enough acid to make a rock fizz. If the rock fizzes when acid is on it then that rock will rise your PH. Don't have PH down I bet you have a nitrate test kit. "Nitrate Test contains two bottles of prepared solutions. Solution #1, labelled "Caution: contains hydrochloric acid," comes in a handy squeeze dropper bottle. If a drop or two on a candidate rock fizzes, or even bubbles, that rock would raise the pH in the aquarium. "

Great info on the subject of collecting rocks.
http/www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/aqua...ing/rocks.shtml

 

[tenohfive]

Local rock isn't an option really - theres no watercourses near me that I know.

Will check out Wyevale. Went to my local B&Q and they had nothing - homebase weren't too bad though, a 2ft x 1ft slab of slate for £6.
And I'm planning a trip to Wildwoods in the nearish future, so will check out the crews hill places then - cheers.

 

[ellena]

See if you have any quarries near you. Luckily, we live near Derbyshire and I got a load of slate for my rockery for about £3 per massive chunk