[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Wild collections of aquarium gravel




> Just south of
>  >Wawa is a place called Old Woman bay.  It is granite gravel with a nice
>  >red/black/brown/white mix.  Putting it through 1/4 inch screen got rid
>  >of the large pebbles and then a window screen flushed the sand.  I have
>  >over a thousand pounds in my tanks.  (lots of tanks).  I got flamed for
>  >stealing this gravel from the beach.  But honestly, I was discreet and
>  >left several million tons.

Just a word of caution- When collecting gravel, or anything else out of the
Great Lakes system, be sure to dose it with something that will kill the zebra
mussels.  For gravel, you could probably use Clorox, then thouroughly rinse
and throw in some photography "hypo" to dispense the bleach.
	If anyone in Western NY is interested in some natural, black gravel, there is
an outcropping of slate on the north end of Dunkirk Beach that has been
pounded down to about the 2mm size by the Lake Erie waves.  I used some of it
years ago before the Aebra mussels were around.
	In my post to someone a few weeks ago, I questioned how you could get gravel
with shells in it from the LFS.  In that posting I remember asking"..what am I
missing here?"  Well, what I was missing is that some folks buy gravel
straight from the pit.  I had just assumed (I know, I know) that you either
collected it yourself, or bought it at a pet shop.  Now I'm checking out rock
and gravel venders in my area.  You guys are right, you can get some nice
stuff at a hefty savings if you are careful about the CaCO3 content.

Bob Dixon