Can i put live rock in a 5 gallon fresh water aquarium?
by Aquaboy on Tuesday, June 8th, 2010 | 5 Comments
i pretty much told you everything
any extra info on live rock ,
does it even need light
what kind
my light it kind of like yellow is that alright?
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it would kill all the organisms in the live rock they need SW to survive so they cannot go in FW tanks
You can’t put a live rock in fresh water but you can put it in fresh water. And for a light I use a white light but i don’t think the light matters much.
The stumbling block would not be the “5 gallon,” but the “fresh water.”
“Live rock” normally refers to rock (usually fossil coral) that is put in marine (sea water) tanks, especially reef tanks, as biological filtration and as a base for sessile invertebrates such as corals, anemones, sponges, mollusks, and for macroalgae. This rock becomes colonized with beneficial bacteria, coraline algae, and (ideally) with a wide variety of other organisms.
Needless to say, none or virtually none of these organisms would live in fresh water.
On the other hand, any rock in an aquarium, whether freshwater or saltwater, in principle eventually becomes “live” in the sense that it will acquire a covering of bacteria and assorted other microorganisms. In fresh water this can be beneficial to your water quality, just as it is in salt water. The most “live” rock would be very porous rock, such as lava rock or tufa, because this rock has the most surface area for colonization by different varieties of bacteria.
On this principle, I have several cichlid tanks that I have aquascaped with lava rock, and it seems to work in providing extra biofiltration. The “lace rock” and “Texas holey rock” used in African cichlid tanks serve the same purpose, as well as buffering the water to a higher pH and hardness. If you don’t want harder, more alkaline water, though (i.e. if you’re keeping soft-water fish), you can use rocks that don’t increase the hardness or affect pH.
What GaryC said!
Can you put the rock in the aquarium? Physically, you can do so, provided that the rock is smaller than the aquarium.
However, it’s a bad idea. The organisms that are cultured within the rock are saltwater organisms. They’ll die pretty quickly in freshwater. As their bodies decay, you can expect the water to fouled up with ammonia, ammonium, and nitrite, all of which are toxic.
Plus, the rotting carcasses will release hydrogen sulfide, which is the same substance that gives rotten eggs their awful smell. Your nose can recognize that gas at a few parts per billion, so with the concentration coming out of the tank at much, much higher levels, the smell will pervade the entire room it’s in. Anybody’s who’s ever had to cure live rock can attest to how nauseating it is to be in the same room.