CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

Is it safe to buy volcanic rock from a place like a gardening store or landscape company? I would let it soak for a day or 2 before putting it in the tank.

it depends if itl mess w/ the pH......and if it doesnt.....the safest thing is to soak it in previous aquarium water for a day or two....and let boil for 5-10 minutes.....

I've been looking into lava rock myself the past few days,yesterday I went and bought some and heres what I was told by the nursery/landscape place.

The Gloss jet black stuff and the bright red and some of it sold for grills are chemically treated so avoid those.

The orange and all the non-glossy colors are just natural lava rock.

I'm not sure if or how much it will change PH (noone knew) but I have some in water now (dull orange and dull black) so I'll know later. When I first put it in it did NOT change the PH,just giving it a little time to double check.

I put a pretty good size piece of orange lava rock that I bought at the fish store in my 55 gallon shortly after it finished cycling, and the ph remained at 7.6. It's been a month and a half, didn't really change in that time.

as long as the lava rock is pure without chemicals, it wont alter the ph