Slate or seiryu stone?

[Zac]

Hey all,

I have a 29 gallon tank I’m doing an overhaul on. This is my first time doing serious aquascaping. I’m torn between slate and seiryu stone. My goal is to have a more rocky side and more woody, open side with some driftwood. I’ll have live plants in the mix. Do you guys recommend slate or seiryu? And what size rocks do you recommend for a 29 gallon? I’d prefer to get only one type because they are crazy expensive.

Feel free to post your scaped 29 gallon tanks here as well! I need some inspiration!

Edited April 17, 2022 by Zac
Typo

[lefty o]

ive always like slate myself, but have both.😎

[Zac]

On 4/16/2022 at 11:43 PM, lefty o said:

ive always like slate myself, but have both.😎

What makes slate better in your experience?

[Baphijmm]

I'd say it depends on what sort of look you're after, why you want rocks in the tank in general. Slate tends to be striated, that is to say, it usually has highly-visible layers; it's good for making shelves, ledges, or dramatic towers that look like igneous intrusions (if you know what those are). Meanwhile, the seiryu stone I've seen tends to be chunky, sometimes with some interesting veining; if you're looking to build a mountain, or just a really interesting outcrop, that seems like a great stone for that.

Personally, I'm a big fan of dragonstone, but that's just because it's super-dramatic and extremely easy to work with. Rocks are rocks are rocks; you've gotta decide what look you're after.

[lefty o]

On 4/16/2022 at 10:49 PM, Zac said:

What makes slate better in your experience?

nothing, just long time use. key to any scaping is to use what is most pleasing to your eye. slate is good for making structure, and even screwing down pieces of wood that wont stop floating.

[nabokovfan87]

I think slate is going to be pretty flat and thin, Seiryu you can get a lot of interesting shapes. Especially larger pieces.   If you can get some pretty good size slate pieces, get slate. It's a more consistent color and you don't have to worry about the stone messing with your parameters as much as you would the seiryu stone.

Slate, a good example:


Seiryu, a good example:

[Tanked]

You have to decide which looks better to you.  For some inspiration you can google "slate aquarium"  I'm pro slate because it can be stacked, broken, and shaped with everyday tools if needed.  If you have a salvage yard near you that specializes in building materials, you might find slate shingles, tiles and pavers super cheap.

[Jack.of.all.aquariums]

If those are the only 2 options I'm going seiryu.

But my honest opinion as a semi experience aquascaper is neither. Unless you are getting it for really cheap and get to pick through a mountain of the stuff it's just not worth the money.

I bought something like $450 in bulk seiryu stone that I got a great deal on because it was tacked onto an international order. I ended up not using it in any serious aquascapes after practicing with it. The problem is you need to be able to pick through tons and tons of stone if you really want your rock work to look incredible like competitive scapes do and it can get frustrating when you have a couple of good piece but not enough to complete your design. It's to hard to get enough pieces that match well with the right shapes, then after your plants grow in it's like 50%+ covered up anyway.

Home depot sells black lava rock online for pretty dang cheap. I bought a whole bunch of it and I was super happy with everything I got. I got a bunch of the bigger stuff and then they have smaller and smaller sizes. I wish I would have bought more because I wanted to rescape all of my tanks with it.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/American-Fire-Glass-XXL-Black-Lava-Rock-4-in-6-in-20-lbs-Bag-LAVA-XXL-20/304078212

The photos are of my 95 gallon that is about 48x24x20. 4 boxes of the 4-6 inch lava rock and 1 of the 1-3 inch. About $150 and I had some left over. So much more bang for the buck. I also bought a couple bags of the smaller sizes to fill in behind my rock work so I didn't need as much substrate those were another $20ish

Edited April 18, 2022 by Jack.of.all.aquariums