# Are Seiryu Stones suitable with Red Cherry Shrimps?



## Darkblade48 (Jan 4, 2008)

I have used seiryuu stones with RCS, and they were fine. These stones will, however, drive up your hardness. I would not keep them with CRS.


----------



## I3raven (Jan 30, 2013)

Is there any alternative stone that has the same nice texture and interesting look as Seiryu Stones? Hopefully it's not more expensive...


----------



## CookieM (Feb 7, 2012)

Yes if you have river creek or any lake near you. Just walk along the river and you'll find many stones that would look amazing in your tank. Just make sure you wash, rinse, and soak them 24 hours before putting it in a live tank.


----------



## Al G (Aug 1, 2011)

CookieM said:


> Yes if you have river creek or any lake near you. Just walk along the river and you'll find many stones that would look amazing in your tank. Just make sure you wash, rinse, and soak them 24 hours before putting it in a live tank.


If you do this, I recommend boiling the rocks as well.

I personally have seiryu stones in a cherry shrimp tank with no issues at all. I agree, however, that seiryu stone (a type of limestone I believe) will raise the hardness and ph, so I don't use them with CRS.


----------



## Koro-chan (Mar 30, 2012)

Is there a chance the stones might explode if you boil them?


----------



## Puddles (Jan 5, 2013)

Koro-chan said:


> Is there a chance the stones might explode if you boil them?


I've boiled several rocks with no explosions. Why would they explode anyway?


----------



## Tecstasy (Jan 13, 2013)

Look up hydrothermal explosion basically explains why they would explode. I boil water and pour it over rocks to clean them



PuddlesAqua said:


> I've boiled several rocks with no explosions. Why would they explode anyway?





Sent from my BlackBerry 9700 using Tapatalk


----------



## Mumford (Nov 12, 2012)

My dad always said if you're building a fire while camping and want to build a stone pit around it make sure to only use rocks that were from the woods, not the river beds. His friend did that as a kid with river rocks and one exploded


- Mumford


----------



## lochaber (Jan 23, 2012)

I really don't think rocks will explode from boiling. There is a risk of some rocks exploding when placed near a fire or baked, but boiling limits the temp to ~100 celsius.

Rocks may crack from thermal expansion cooling, but I've never heard a first (or even second) hand account of rocks exploding while being boiled.


I sincerely believe this started as a legitimate concern for safety about baking rocks, which got exaggerated/expanded to the point where people are afraid to heat rocks above room temperature.

The same mechanism (nearly instantaneous conversion of liquid water to steam) can cause trees to explode when hit by lightning, or to pop in a campfire, yet boiling driftwood is pretty uneventful, and nearly everyone does it. I believe it's also the same reason eggs explode when you microwave them, yet boiling them is similarly boring. If there is water trapped in a pocket in the rock, as it's heated, the water will expand slightly, and the pressure will increase slightly, also raising the boiling point for that pocket of water.- I don't think there would be any opportunity to get the water hot enough to convert to steam catastrophically, the temp won't go over 100 celsius.


----------



## I3raven (Jan 30, 2013)

Thanks for the input guys, I might just use lava rock. I did not know rocks could explode during boiling.


----------



## ThatGuyWithTheFish (Apr 29, 2012)

Why boil them anyways?


----------



## Puddles (Jan 5, 2013)

ThatGuyWithTheFish said:


> Why boil them anyways?


Kill any pathogens that might be on the rocks that you don't want transferred into your tank.


----------

