Has anyone ever used Spaghetti rock?

[tom_os]

My local fish shop has something in they call spaghetti rock so i bought a little today

it looks very dirty, a muddy brown colour, but when i wash it only a little but of dirt comes off and if you run it under a tap the water runs off virtually clear.

I am planning to use it in a freshwater planted nano but it looks very much like a coral or live rock for marine tanks. If so i am wondering how it will affect water parameters?

heres a link http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=h ... CEEQ9QEwBg

all advice would be appreciated. i currently have it sitting in a bucket of boiling water

thanks

 

[flygja]

Do the vinegar test. Put a few drops of vinegar (synthetic ones are best) and bring it near your ears. If you can hear or see the rock fizzing, then it will increase your pH and possibly kH too. If that's so, then not best to use in a planted tank, especially a nano where the volume of water isn't enough to buffer parameter changes.

 

[Luketendo]

It is most likely to fail the fizz test is I'm pretty certain it contains calcium as it is indeed marine rock.

 

[basil]

Interesting - looks quite similar to lava rock in structure?

 

[tom_os]

yeah it will raise the ph but i have read in a few places that it can be used in both fresh and saltwater

 

[Stu Worrall]

i tried the vinegar test on some at a local quarry and it fizzed like a coke bottle and mentos mint. needless to say i didnt risk buying any for my tank

 

[flygja]

It can be used, but you'll need to select plants and fish that tolerant to higher pH and kH levels.

 

[tom_os]

ok, so what kind of plants would you recommend. I want to keep it simple, ideally just a carpeting plant and a background plant

thanks

 

[a1Matt]

IME most plants are fine in harder water.
Not sure what spaghetti rock will do to your parameters, but I've gone up to ph9 and kh15 and found all plants grew fine.
The only exception were real delicate plants which would not have grown in average ph kh values anyway. e.g. crypt tonkinensis.

 

[Myrtle]

Hi, I have 15dkh water out of the tap (yuk) and my crypts are fine; in fact the only plants I seem to struggle with are some of the finer leaved ones (Cabomba etc) and mosses which take about 6 months to attach! I have pH 7.5ish though.

 

[Piece-of-fish]

Doing more water changes could solve the problem i suppose. If its only nano 2-3 times per week large changes wont take much time and will dissolve whatever leaks to the water.

 

[tom_os]

ok thanks. I will keep an eye on it before i add any fish

the only other thing is i will be adding co2 with will be lowering the ph so i hope the ph wont be fluctuating too much

 

[Tom]

I used it at PFK for a tank setup we did. I think it was from Unipac.

 

[tom_os]

yeah it is unipac. its the only half interesting rock they do