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Addressing the stone elephant in the room:
It seems to me that this stone is a calcium carbonate stone like the rock we usually use for salt tanks. However there is a chance of leaching trace elements. It sounds like these elements in the rocks aren't toxic and thus their use in freshwater. The worry with these rocks is they also contain a high amount of quartz (SiO2) which means it will leach silicates but then sand is mostly quartz and is far more porous than this rock. Obviously the worry with silicates is diatoms but I already dose copepods heavily in my tanks so hopefully that will control that. Saying that I don't know what else will leach that isn't written about.
I would be very cautious using the mountain stone. The last time I used freshwater stone (lava, slate, seiryu, etc.) in a marine system, it never left the diatom phase. @EverydayAquarist also has issues with lava rock in his display:
This would potentially explain your diatom problem. (but again why don't we have that problem with sand??)

As for Everyday Aquarist my knowledge as an environmental engineer makes me wonder if lava rocks leach iron, as iron is often a limiting element in the oceans. It is known to be an element that causes Algea blooms in the ocean and thus why the dust off the Sahara desert, which is high in iron, is such an important environmental function. Allowing Algea growth which in turn absorbs carbon from the air and oceans. If his lava rocks which often contain a hodgepodge of different elements do contain soluble iron. Obviously just a blind hypothesis with absolutely no proof to back it up.
 

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Addressing the stone elephant in the room:
It seems to me that this stone is a calcium carbonate stone like the rock we usually use for salt tanks. However there is a chance of leaching trace elements. It sounds like these elements in the rocks aren't toxic and thus their use in freshwater. The worry with these rocks is they also contain a high amount of quartz (SiO2) which means it will leach silicates but then sand is mostly quartz and is far more porous than this rock. Obviously the worry with silicates is diatoms but I already dose copepods heavily in my tanks so hopefully that will control that. Saying that I don't know what else will leach that isn't written about.

This would potentially explain your diatom problem. (but again why don't we have that problem with sand??)

As for Everyday Aquarist my knowledge as an environmental engineer makes me wonder if lava rocks leach iron, as iron is often a limiting element in the oceans. It is known to be an element that causes Algea blooms in the ocean and thus why the dust off the Sahara desert, which is high in iron, is such an important environmental function. Allowing Algea growth which in turn absorbs carbon from the air and oceans. If his lava rocks which often contain a hodgepodge of different elements do contain soluble iron. Obviously just a blind hypothesis with absolutely no proof to back it up.
We don't typically have that problem with sand in the hobby because the sand used in the hobby is not a silica sand like normal desert (Quartz - SiO2) sand is. The sand used in the hobby is Aragonite (CH2CaO3) sand.

As far as the leaching iron hypothesis, I've done a bit of research on using lava rock in reef tanks and ponds (I asked a question about it here on R2R prior to researching it heavily), and I've only come across four or five anecdotes of it causing problems, none of which were tank nuking serious like severe leaching of heavy metals would be. It is entirely possible that it would leach iron and other metals which could be either beneficial (such as leaching small amounts of iron and replacing the depleted nutrient in the tank) or detrimental (such as leaching small amounts of copper and harming/killing your inverts) to the tank, and this is the main reason why people generally discourage it - the chance of leaching bad things into the tank. Again, though, I've yet to come across even an anecdote which would lead me to believe that it would do so in large enough quantities to nuke a tank, or rapidly enough that you wouldn't see some sort warning signs in advance if you were paying attention. That said, the risk of a constant diatom bloom from silica in the rock is something that you should probably take into account and prepare for, meaning that you may want to consider a variety of ways of dealing with that issue should it arise (competition, predation, manual removal, chemical treatments, etc.).
 
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We don't typically have that problem with sand in the hobby because the sand used in the hobby is not a silica sand like normal desert (Quartz - SiO2) sand is. The sand used in the hobby is Aragonite (CH2CaO3) sand.

As far as the leaching iron hypothesis, I've done a bit of research on using lava rock in reef tanks and ponds (I asked a question about it here on R2R prior to researching it heavily), and I've only come across four or five anecdotes of it causing problems, none of which were tank nuking serious like severe leaching of heavy metals would be. It is entirely possible that it would leach iron and other metals which could be either beneficial (such as leaching small amounts of iron and replacing the depleted nutrient in the tank) or detrimental (such as leaching small amounts of copper and harming/killing your inverts) to the tank, and this is the main reason why people generally discourage it - the chance of leaching bad things into the tank. Again, though, I've yet to come across even an anecdote which would lead me to believe that it would do so in large enough quantities to nuke a tank, or rapidly enough that you wouldn't see some sort warning signs in advance if you were paying attention. That said, the risk of a constant diatom bloom from silica in the rock is something that you should probably take into account and prepare for, meaning that you may want to consider a variety of ways of dealing with that issue should it arise (competition, predation, manual removal, chemical treatments, etc.).
Great point. I was just thinking of how Fiji pink supposedly contains pink quartz (not that I've seen any in mine) and did a quick google search about quartz in aquarium sand and silicates. My fault for looking up general aquarium sand rather than aragonite sand. This is the article I scanned through: https://reefs.com/magazine/silica-in-reef-aquariums/ There is a section in there on sand where he does some tests and finds:
  1. The “silica” play sand that I purchased from Home Depot can substantially raise the dissolved silica concentration in seawater.
  2. The dissolvable portion of the silica sand cannot be completely removed by several rinses with either fresh or salt water, although it may be decreased somewhat by that process.
  3. Southdown calcium carbonate sand (likely aragonite) can release soluble silica, but about ten fold less than the “silica” sand.
I obviously didn't read point 3. Though he does go on to say that that amount of silica can be managed and that many people do use it in saltwater. I guess I'll just have to try and do the same.
 

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There's a cave in that knoll, gsp will grow over everything. It;s easy to control by separating rock structures and just trimming with shears or a blade..

1657837981971.png
 
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There's a cave in that knoll, gsp will grow over everything. It;s easy to control by separating rock structures and just trimming with shears or a blade.
That tank is great! I'd love to see that growth from my GSP though I'm guessing this tank has some aging to do first. Also love those fish.

I saw this beautiful robin at the LFS and thought that's something you'd have. Any idea on the species?
tempImage6ntEza.png
 

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That tank is great! I'd love to see that growth from my GSP though I'm guessing this tank has some aging to do first. Also love those fish.

I saw this beautiful robin at the LFS and thought that's something you'd have. Any idea on the species?
tempImage6ntEza.png

Man he's gorgeous, I never got one because they grow a little larger than I like. Also the dealers are never too specific about the actual species, and some are dull and grey or brown. My best guess on this one is the Prionotus tribulus, the flying gurnard or bighead searobin. If I saw that one in person, I'd probably take it.
 
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Man he's gorgeous, I never got one because they grow a little larger than I like. Also the dealers are never too specific about the actual species, and some are dull and grey or brown. My best guess on this one is the Prionotus tribulus, the flying gurnard or bighead searobin. If I saw that one in person, I'd probably take it.
That definitely looks like the right species. And yes, it was a hard creature to leave behind.
 
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Feeding my other eel. He's a bit of a monster/pig thus he's going to be a late edition to this tank. One advantage of snake eels is their teeth are very dull.
 
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Thanks!

Though the difference is night and day. The banded is so much harder to feed and shy. While the spotted will find and eat anything it can fit down its mouth. My usual LFS reopened (thus the cheap and pre-quarintined bellus). They're still trying to sell the other banded but that one looks very rough and near death and I almost never see a sick fish there. I think you may be right with the ribbon eel comparison. While the gold-spotted is more like a snowflake.
 
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Something else I noticed which is nice is that these engineer gobies are great pipe cleaners. One shares the pipes with the banded and cleans up after both of them. It carries any waste out of the pipes allowing me to net it out.
 
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No update other than I'm reconsidering the stocking might not risk the chalk bass and go with some medium sized fish instead. Harlequin Tusk maybe? Trying to slow it down and take this slow (doubt I'll succeed but doing alright at the moment). Anyway I made a better video:
 

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The banded looks like he is doing really well. I was going to tell you, I saw a good looking goldspotted at the lfs I get my ghosties at today. It was probably 2' but really skinny, so still a juvi. If you can swing at, try and get an aussie tusk. I think the Indo ones are being collected with cyanide or something else has been going on, there has been an unusually high mortality rate lately. They also seem to come in with internal parasites frequently so I would plan to put them in observation.
 
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The banded looks like he is doing really well. I was going to tell you, I saw a good looking goldspotted at the lfs I get my ghosties at today. It was probably 2' but really skinny, so still a juvi. If you can swing at, try and get an aussie tusk. I think the Indo ones are being collected with cyanide or something else has been going on, there has been an unusually high mortality rate lately. They also seem to come in with internal parasites frequently so I would plan to put them in observation.

Really, interesting…
Mines 18” but very plump and I’ve seen two others and they were also quite rotund even a 6". I’m confused by snake eels though. The banded at my LFS has the same proportions as mine except it’s head is at least twice the size.

Shoot, I don’t need another cyanide death at the moment. So I’ll definitely look for an Aussie.

And speaking of cyanide and eels my LFS was trying to talk me into an “African” variant ribbon eel in the male form; apparently its a different shade of blue but I haven't seen enough to know. Very tempting but I think I have enough eel stress at the moment. He did say he'd try and start selling live feeders though.
809E63BF-5AE6-48C0-8CCA-CDCC2E49F9AE.jpeg
 
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A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

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