Question of the Day Hobby Hacks - your best tips, tricks and time-savers!

[PeerUnk]

Got that same experience myself as well. Went to such a local seller, selected/gathered myself 100-150 kg of river rock from huge piles they have laying around their premise and payed…. 20 euros.

 

[CincyScaper]

n

I imagine most on here are aware of this but thought I'd post anyway since it was on my to-do list today.

We all know how expensive hardscape can be, unless you're willing to do the work to go out in the wild and collect it yourself and take some small risk using it in your aquarium. I'm also aware that some types of stone, that aquarists really love for their appearance, are hard to get unless you're willing to pay those high prices. There are, however, some perfectly good hardscape stones that are available much cheaper than what your local LFS or online retailers are selling it for. Today I picked up some Colorado and Dakota river stone/cobble from my nearby commercial landscape stone yard. pictured is at least 350 lbs of stone from large down to pea gravel. I got the pea gravel in several different color varieties that will probably match many different scapes I do, and if it's used just for detailing, what I have will last a long, long time.

Now if I were to buy that from a local LFS or even online, it would cost me at least 1.99 per lb. I've never seen it available locally for less than 3.00 a lb and that was a sale price. So we're talking at least $700 for what I have here. How much did it cost today; $34 and change, and I picked it out from their yard myself. They mainly sale in bulk, but if you just want a small amount, it's $8 per 5 gallon bucket. These are the guys that sell to the local nurseries and commercial landscapers so do yourself a favor and search for ones in your area and skip the middle man to save some money.

View attachment 10214

do you plan to test them to see if they would affect KH and GH ?

 

[JayP]

n

do you plan to test them to see if they would affect KH and GH ?

I expect the Colorado river cobble to be inert as it seems to be the same you find being sold for aquriums. The stone they call Dakota seems to be a river stone but also a bit like Manten stone. The colors surprised me as I was power washing it, gray with patches and streaks of rust/orange. I think it will be fine but I'll probably do a basic test on it to be sure.

 

[JayP]

n

do you plan to test them to see if they would affect KH and GH ?

Tested all the rock today. Colorado river cobble, as expected, was all good. Unfortunately, the Dakota stone failed the acid test. Is it any worse than Seiryu? I don't know, but I'll probably put it aside. Too bad because I liked some of the coloration. It was only a small portion of what I purchased though. Interestingly, I was also power washing all the Tom Barr El Jefe stone and as I was pulling it all from the boxes it came in, one big chunk stood out. Taking up weight in my 50lbs of El Jefe stone was a chunk of seiryu stone. Of course, it also failed the acid test....the El Jefe did not.

 

[CincyScaper]

Tested all the rock today. Colorado river cobble, as expected, was all good. Unfortunately, the Dakota stone failed the acid test. Is it any worse than Seiryu? I don't know, but I'll probably put it aside. Too bad because I liked some of the coloration. It was only a small portion of what I purchased though. Interestingly, I was also power washing all the Tom Barr El Jefe stone and as I was pulling it all from the boxes it came in, one big chunk stood out. Taking up weight in my 50lbs of El Jefe stone was a chunk of seiryu stone. Of course, it also failed the acid test....the El Jefe did not.

Bummer! Unfortunate. Do you mind labeling the ones on your pic. What acid do you use ? The API test kit ?

 

[JayP]

Bummer! Unfortunate. Do you mind labeling the ones on your pic. What acid do you use ? The API test kit ?

I can take some picks of things sorted out later. Yes, I used the Nitrate #1 reagent for testing. Should have thought to take it with me to the rock yard. Lesson learned.

 

[JayP]

Bummer! Unfortunate. Do you mind labeling the ones on your pic. What acid do you use ? The API test kit ?

Rocks in top photo are what was labeled as Dakota. All but the one on the far left failed the acid test. In the bottom photo are all the largest of the Colorado river cobble. Those and all the smaller sizes passed. Eventually I'll get around to doing a river cobble scape or two.

 

[JayP]

You may be wondering, what top and bottom photo. I forgot to add it .

 

[gnatster]

I found these to dim the bright lights on modern audio equipment. Light-blocking stickers that are semi-translucent and dim the little dot lights. Like I'm finding on an ATO controller, or the KASA smart strips.

 

[Naturescapes_Rocco]

Here's a good one! It's really hard to get smooth sand when scaping. If you try to use something large and flat to level it, it works -- but often leaves lines and ridges from the flattining.

Instead, use your planting pinsettes to "smooth" the sand. If it's fine enough sand, it will really take well to being raked with your tweezers into super smooth, flat planes/hills/shapes.

I've been using my pinsettes for this purpose for years, I'll never go back to using "sand flatteners"!