Using "pea gravel"

[dralarms]

In a word, don't. 3 days after adding it to my 55 gal, my water is very cloudy, ph is down around 6.2, and my fish don't like it. (they were staying on the regular gravel side. Must be leaching something. But as luck would have it I found 22 lb bag of "natural river rock" gravel at Bigalsonline.com for $4.99 a bag. The lfs wanted 12.99 for a 25lb bag . I guess some Pea gravel might be ok but the stuff I bought aint.

 

[Scottw68TN]

It takes forever to clean prior to putting in. It works it just takes alot of soaking and rinsing. I have it in a 75 and the water is clear. Strange about the ph though.

 

[dralarms]

Yea, really messed with my mind. Since I don't have any place to "soak it" and keep it rinsed good I'm going back to regular gravel (but not the blue stuff). I wanted it to look more natural, even if all my fish don't match.

 

[tennhound]

i have pea gravel in both my 29 gallon and 10 gallon. just rinsed inthe sink and boiled them then rinsed again. tank was a little cloudy for a few hours until filtered good.

 

[dralarms]

That's what I didn't do I didn't boil it. (my wife would kill me).

 

[flamron]

We have pea gravel from Wal-mart. Only 3.49 for 50#. We rinsed it and rinsed it and rinsed it and so on, but it looks good and is way cheaper than fish stores. The water was cloudy for about an hour, but then it was clear. We didn't boil ours' though.

 

[dralarms]

I'm begining to think it's a different type, Mine was clear for a while and then started getting cloudy last nught and then tonight it's like muddy water. Got them out fast and did a 15% water change, If it's not clearing up by in the morning I'll do a 75% change tomorrow night.

 

[Scottw68TN]

Could it be a bacteria bloom?

 

[TankGirl]

I usually get the aquarium grade pea gravel, which does have some kind of epoxy coating on it to keep it inert. I would not be surprised if uncoated gravel raised your pH, but lowered it? I need to brush up on my chemistry to figure this one out!

 

[Scottw68TN]

6.2? I'm going to go out on a limb here and say NO way a rock of any type shape or size did that!

 

[dralarms]

It could be a bacteria bloom, don't know for sure. the water is still cloudy today. Do you think it will be ok to leave it like that for a few (3) days so I only have to change the water once when I get my new gravel? Or should I go ahead and change out as much as I can to see if I can get this under control? I'm leaning towards now and then again later.

 

[dralarms]

Well I decided to go ahead and change the water. I'm thinking it was something that wasn't washed off the rocks well, either way it's my fault. Had such a beatiful tank before that hairbrained idea.

 

[TankGirl]

6.2? I'm going to go out on a limb here and say NO way a rock of any type shape or size did that!

Yeah, this has seriously got me thinking! I can't find any info about this, and all of the rock I can think of will do nothing but increase pH. There has to be another reason for the pH drop.