Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Ahh cool thats what I thought. Didn't think it would be the chemistry of scoria dust.

I tested mine when the water was "chocolate" coloured. in the tiny amount in the test vial it was barely discernible.
The colours showed fine but a tad transparency was lost.

Seriously, I know that gravels aren't gravels as Worms (i think it was) can attest.... he got delivered some gravel intended as road base...

Obviously had something mixed into it....

Probably depends where you get your supply I suppose.... maybe the "red" scoria has been artificially coloured or colour "enhanced"....

Is red scoria different form red lava rock and does anyone know if red lava rock can be used for media beds?

How well can you tumble scoria? It may be a little hand safer. Throw in a few bags in a cement mixer with water for a while..

Jimmyjohn, what you got is what is called crush and run, it is supposed to be very compactable, and is NOT what you want. Red scoria is not dyed. It breaks apart pretty easily, and would not be so pretty after a while. Howard, red lava is scoria. Go ahead and use it.

Oh, and tumbling will just expose new jagged edges. I now just dig right in with my bare hands. No big deal.

Depends on the scoria. Some scoria is very soft and brittle other stuff is much harder and durable.

Still, as scoria comes in the colors it is found naturally in, dying would drive up the cost making it unlikely.

Funny you should say that...

I was at a quarry a little while ago where they were dying scoria to different colours. It was for landscaping to give people more choice of coloured ground cover.

Wow. What a shame. I can just see someone asking for their scoria in chartreuse. All real men know the color chartreuse because some of their fishing lures come in that color. That being said, red is one of the colors it comes in naturally. In some locales black is more common. I would imagine those quarries are charging more for fancy colors...

NFOMCLOL! *


It was a couple of years ago but I remember chartreuse, blue, green and a number of deeper and brighter reds.






*Nearly Fell off my chair LOL

I don't recall ever seeing Stuart laugh that hard before

Cracking effort pirate man

I think the chartreuse stuff is specially treated to not ruin your manicure when you dig into it too.

Hi

I am running 20mm screened red scoria in my GB. I rinsed the scoria a few times before plumbing it into the system. I haven't killed any fish or plants yet.

As i understand it (I'm not a geologist so take this with a grain of salt) scoria rock is a volcanic rock. That means that it is formed under very high temperatures, so it should be very stable. It took a huge amount of energy (heat) to lock the ingredients of scoria into it, so conversely, it takes a huge amount of energy to release these ingredients from the rock. Similarly glass is made of some nasty stuff (silica leads to silicosis) but these nasties are tightly locked into one of the most stable, safe materials known. In short, don't fret.