Review on 18 Pounds Pebbles Aquarium Gravel River Rock, Natural Polished Decorative Gravel, Garden 🪨 Outdoor Ornamental River Pebbles Rocks, Mixed Color Stones, Polished Gravel for Landscaping Vase Fillers by Chris Edwards

I bought two bags of these for my 55 gallon. Aquarium a few months ago; and while i like how they look in a tank, when they actually keep fish they suck. I put together a freshwater view aquarium with a decent biological load and studied the nitrogen cycle in detail. Once my levels went up and then back down to normal (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates) I found I had problems with kelp (diatoms), then even my plecos and snails had control problems. The problem is these stones are too heavy for my cleaners. Food falls between rocks and simply rots there, leading to nitrate emissions and requiring much more constant cleaning than usual. Also, my gravel vacuum had great trouble removing dirt from these rocks. After weeks of fighting algae and doing more water changes than I ever thought necessary, I finally decided to remove the rocks and replace them with a more fish-friendly substrate. Instead I plan to use these stones in my garden. Since replacing them I have not had any problems with algae in my aquarium. These rocks are very pretty and will probably work better in a much smaller tank (5-10 gallons) where you will be making more water. varies anyway, but I don't recommend them for large tanks.