Lava rock?

[ckaidi]

Hi all, I had been adding lots of plants that tied to red rock. Just curious if it's lava rock and does it affect water parameters especially ph level?

Thank for your help

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[Urban Aquaria]

It'll depend on the type of lava rock (characteristics can vary even if they look the same) and the different conditions they were previously kept in (some might still have residual chemicals or minerals trapped inside them), so they may or may not affect your tank's water parameters.

The only way to test is to put them in a separate small container of water for 1-2 weeks and test the water parameters (ie. pH, GH, TDS etc) before and after, then compare and see if there are any noticeable changes.

Otherwise you could also just leave them in your tank and test the water conditions weekly to check if there are any changes, if the parameters are still stable over a few weeks, then it either means the rocks are mostly inert or whatever it releases your soil substrate is able to buffer it.

[ckaidi]

Thanks. Still to find the reasons for my high ph beside my super high ph tap water. Controlled the pH to 7 with peat and black water.

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[Urban Aquaria]

Thanks. Still to find the reasons for my high ph beside my super high ph tap water. Controlled the pH to 7 with peat and black water.

Are you using soil substrate which buffer the pH and kH? If you are then the soil should keep the overall pH low, though depending on the brand of the soil, its buffering ability does have a limited lifespan and would tend to expire quicker if it has to constantly buffer against higher pH water during water changes.

If your tap water naturally has high pH, then just make sure to do water changes in smaller volumes (but more frequently to make up the difference), so that the pH doesn't swing up too much whenever you do water changes. Its mainly to avoid residual ammonia suddenly shifting from non-toxic to toxic forms and affecting the fishes and shrimps.

[ckaidi]

I forget what's the brand of my soil. But it does suppose to buffer. Guess my super high ph tap water overwhelmed it already. And I realised it too late.

My ammonia, nitrite and nitrate all zero. No water change for awhile already. But doing daily top up with distilled water for a few weeks already. Water maintained around 6.8-7.2 for the time being.

If any ways to add more soil to buffer the water I would love to do it..

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