Lava Rocks

EOD

AC Members
Sep 12, 2010
599
2
18
Schofield Barracks, HI
Real Name
David
So I had an incident Sunday and had to fly to the big island (Hawaii) on an emergency mission. While there we stopped at the military training area (PTA - Pohakuloa Training Area) to do some work and I picked up some lava rocks off the impact area. I thought they might work in an aquarium or some sort of project so here's some pictures. You all let me know what you think. They are sharp and fairly light weight. One of them is so aerated that it floats!

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That's me wearing a borrowed hoodie and freezing my butt off at around 13,000 feet.
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As you can see, we are above the clouds and what you see below the clouds is not rain, it's volcanic fog or VOG.
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The locals drive up when it snows to steal the snow and bring it home for various reasons.
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Here's two of the rocks after soaking in a bucket of water for a while.
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The one higher in the picture is the rock that floats.
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And here's another angle.

Good candidates for attaching moss to? Perhaps some rooted plant that doesn't require substrate? How about running and airline into a hole I could drill and see if it shoots bubbles out all the little holes?
 
"the rock that floats" oxymoron??? That's cool man, but be careful, if they're sharp you don't want fish cutting themselves open.
 
Careful, don't get Pele mad at you. :bowing:


I always wanted to try attaching plants to them since they're so porous.
 
No bad luck yet. If it starts happening I'll return it like the legend says.
 
As a precaution I would soak them in a bucket for a couple weeks and see if they alter the water parameters at all but overall lava rocks are fair game and work very well...if you get them to sink. :) Boil them and then put them in COLD water for a few minutes and they should sink.
 
Thanks. They have been in a bucket of water since I got home.
 
From what I understand in my Lava Rock research when I was looking into what rocks were safe for aquariums, lava rock has a neutral pH and will not absorb or release dyes into your tank. The only fall back is that since it's so porous, you'll have to boil it in salt water for a few hours to kill any bacteria that has undoubtedly colonized the grooves and cracks in it. Great finds!!!
 
I have a giant pile of red lava rock in my African Cichlid tank, the fish love swimming through all the natural caves and I was able to get a much bigger stack without adding too much extra weight.

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