***Rocks and Stone available in the Dublin Area***

I am sick of paying for ocean,lava,holey and all other types of rock when there is 100's of tons of natural and better looking stuff around Dublin.I reckon Ive spent around €400 on rocks in the last 2 years.
I got a load of great looking stone from Dollymount,along the Raheny entrance recently.Unfortunately it is fierce heavy so cant fill up tanks with it!!Does anyone know of any good places where some nice rock or stone could be borrowed in the Dublin area.Round smooth stones would be top of my list,even if you know of any shops selling them let me know!Thanks.ChrisM.

Interesting reading your post i'm off to Tenerife next week for a few days and was going to ask what sort of rock could i pick up in small quantitys i've been there a good few times and there is plenty of rock lying around hills and off the beaten track beaches and i often wondered would it be any use any advice is welcome and chris if i bring enough back your welcome to some.

Nice one Steven,
I think Aer Lingus would charge you about €10,000 to carry the amount of rocks Im looking for!!I got stung in Lanzarote 2 years ago for having a few kilos over the baggage weight limit and either had to pay or leave stuff behind.,,ended up paying of course.I think the rock over there is volcanic,looks great and shouldnt have any bad minerals or bacteria present.Sean Connolly would be the man to ask as he lives in Spain.

yeah will get sean to answer this one there is 10 of us going over so a little bit in each bag would be more than enough for myself its just identifing the useful from the useless if you know what i mean

I hope that you two don't mind me butting in here with a related item , I just felt better asking when I'm in the presence of cheapskates .

BOGWOOD , I'm interested in gathering wood / bogwood from our native streams , as it wont have any carbon air-miles attached . Any advice , pitfalls ?

PJQ

Have a look around garden centres.
I use to pull the line that I was doing a job for someone and I needed samples to show.
Sometimes they give them out for free.
Just be careful of sharp egdes.

On the bog wood.
I would let it dry out completely then steep it in boiling water.
Soak it in pp if you can get it. I have some if you want it.

You could end up with a tank load of nasty insect lavae or worse some nasty disease. Th pp should do the trick.

I would not take any wood out of any stream. Bogwood is called bogwood for a reason. I collect mine from a bog in West Cork. Wood in a stream can look like bogwood but needn't necessarly be. The likelyhood of it starting to rot in your tank is also extremely high.

Have a look where turf is cut. There is always plenty of bogwood being dug up with it (my way, the lazy way). Oak is the onlt timber you should use. By all means avoid cedar. It's poisonous and no matter how well you soak it, it will always be.

Lava from Lanzarote is OK to use. Wanted to bring some myself last time I was there before Christmas but travelling with a baby with no baggage allowance screwed that idea

I would not take any wood out of any stream. Bogwood is called bogwood for a reason. I collect mine from a bog in West Cork. Wood in a stream can look like bogwood but needn't necessarly be. The likelyhood of it starting to rot in your tank is also extremely high.

Have a look where turf is cut. There is always plenty of bogwood being dug up with it (my way, the lazy way). Oak is the onlt timber you should use. By all means avoid cedar. It's poisonous and no matter how well you soak it, it will always be.

Lava from Lanzarote is OK to use. Wanted to bring some myself last time I was there before Christmas but travelling with a baby with no baggage allowance screwed that idea

I taught he was taking it from a bog. Must be the old age catching up on me. Agree with Holgar get yor arse down to the bog.

I think you have to be carefull about Lava from Lanzarote. The islanders are very proud, and rightly so, of their island and as far as I know it's illegal to remove stones ordinary or lava.
OK a few small ones in your bag .... but it may be the authorities not the airline you have to deal with if your getting a shedload.

Processor.

Has anyone tried making rocks from styrofoam or something similar? I'd like to fill a tank with rocks but would be afraid of the weight.

On a similar note, does anyone put something in the bottom of their tanks to try and distribute the weight of rocks rather than just placing them on the glass?

I usually keep the sand about two inches thick at the back to hold them in place.

Went up to Wicklow today and got some lovely cobbles from the river Liffey (part of the river before waste is pumped in).They are drying out now and will be in my tank tomorrow,hopefully.i will post pics when I have decided on an aquascape,should be around Easter!!

Anthony said

On the bog wood.
I would let it dry out completely then steep it in boiling water.
Soak it in pp if you can get it. I have some if you want it.

I have waited all day just in case the obvious answer comes to me ....... what is pp ??? . If it is what I thought it was ,,, then I have some , and could get more , might take a day or two to cover a stump

Holgar ,
I have some nice wood from the bottom of a stream ( does not float ) , probably roots of furze (gorse) bushes . The turf bog option definitely involves carbon miles as I dont know of any in the S.East .

While we are on the topic of cheap tank fillers , I'm using some cracked clay pots from the garden to cover / weigh down plants . Will they influence my pH ?

pjq

On a similar note, does anyone put something in the bottom of their tanks to try and distribute the weight of rocks rather than just placing them on the glass?

I put the rocks directly on the glass then fill in around them with the substrate. I did this to prevent any rock slides in my mbuna due to their digging nature.

Regarding acquiring rocks!, I drove clear across the country to get rock for my mbuna tank. It was sourced in a stream the far side of Newport Co. Mayo, it is Devonian "old red sandstone" and it is one of the few places where you can collect it. This is mainly because the other areas are covered in stuff called "earth". The weight of the rock was something nuts, it nearly killed my car and cost me a fortune in petrol but it was still far cheaper than paying for it.





How the tank looks now

thats some amount of rock..... Not worried that the glass might crack from the strain?

PP is Potassium Permanganate. pm me if you want some with instructions on how to use it.

To Essay's earlier post.
You can make a structure that looks very realistic from styrofoam. It's very easy to do if a bit time consuming.
I did the back and sides in my 600 l tank with it.
Here is what you need.

Styrofaom sheets. I used 2 inch thick ones but you can glue them together if you want to. For glue use the stuff esoecially sold to glue syrofoam

Soldering Iron to shape the styrofoam

a stanely knife for rough shaping

acrylic paints to your taste

varnish, low odour water based stuff for exterior applications. Ronseal is what I used

Silicone glue

If you want to make a back for a tank, glue styrofoam sheets to the back of the tank with silicone and let dry. You can glue another sheet of styrofoam on top of the one glued to the back of the tank if you want a deap feature. Let it dry for 24 hours.
Now cut the rough outlines into the styrofoam sheets. Use the soldering iron to finely shape the features you want. Do this outside.

Now paint your background with the acrylic paints (Easons did the cheapest I could find at 7.95 € a bottle)

Let the paint dry for 24 hours and add a second layer of paint and let it dry for 24 hours again.

No cover the whole with the varnish. Add some moer layers of varnish and always giving it time to dry between layers. If you can get a hold of epoxy use that.

Once that is finished let it air for a couple of days. Fill the tank with water and leave it stand for two days. Repeat this twice more.


Holger

that's some amount of rock..... Not worried that the glass might crack from the strain?

#


Yeah I do get the proverbial ants in my pants when I think of the combined weight of all the rock. To prevent major strain on the bottom sheet of glass I added extra support measures.

Most people are aware of the design of juwel tanks and they will know that the bottom sheet of glass on most models is elevated slightly off the supporting surface, table top, stand...etc. This IMHO is a bad design feature as it can lead to lager stresses occurring on the unsupported sheet of glass and can increase the chance of catastrophic disaster. To combat this I added two sheets of 9 mm plywood under the glass either side on the centre support. It has worked so far!!! touch wood.

Holger that sounds like a quality background, any chance of a picture of your handiwork?

i was thinking the same myself, even though Juwel do not recommend putting anything under the tank.....

Waiting for broadband to be connected at home before I can post pictures. Don't have the patience to wait for the dial up connection to upload picture Doing a new background for one of my brothers-in-law. Will do a picture series and post a step by step guide. Will also show you how to hide the filter in/outlet.

Also on the topic of decor etc.... has anyone ever tried painting the outside back of a tank?

You can paint the back either with oil based paint or acrylics. Oil based is pretty permanent

I was even thinking of spraying, but was concerned would the paint weaken the silicon holding the tank together?

Would you like to spray just one colour to block it out or would you like to spray a picture/details?

Put tape over the silicone while you are spraying the back. You can remove it when the paint is dry

was think all black or dark blue or dark green.....

was think all black or dark blue or dark green.....

I would recommend using vinyl then rather than paint.
You can get sheets/rolls of vinyl in all colours from any decent sign manufacturer then just apply it like a sticker.

It would be easier + less permenent than spraying.

All black will give you a better perception of depth (your tank will look bigger) Dark blue or dark green will do the same to some extent. I would imagine that dark blue looks pretty awful. The dark green will have to be almost black as well

Fill the tank with water and leave it stand for two days. Repeat this twice more.

Daft question of the day...... Why use the tank? Would it not be better to fill a bath or something to lessen the chance of toxins ramaining in the tank?

you could do that too. However, it's easier to glue in the styrofoam first before and then cut the pattern in that you want. This way you can see what it looks like in the tank. If you want to hide your filter in/outlet it is also much easier to fit than to do it in the end. It's quite a messy process and in this way all the little styrofaom off-cuts are contained within the tank. Much easier to clean.
So far I haven't had a single fish dying from any potential residue of the paints or varnish