WIO > Stones

WIO's stones are sold as named characters rather than geological types — Web, Bumblebee, Black Venom, Inferno, Hellboy Dragon, Jade. That sounds like marketing until you realize the point: each name is a color family that runs across the whole range, so the stone you choose has matching sand, riverbed and boulders behind it.

The families, and what they do in a tank

• Black Venom — dark, near-black, heavily textured. The strongest contrast against green plants of anything in the range, and it makes fish color look more saturated. Unforgiving of algae, which shows plainly on dark rock.
• Bumblebee — banded light and dark, the most visually busy option. One or two pieces anchor a scape; a tank full of it competes with the plants.
• Inferno — warm, rust and ochre tones. Pairs naturally with red and bronze stem plants and with warm substrates.
• Jade — green-gray, quiet, and the easiest to build with. If you are unsure, this is the least likely to fight anything else in the tank.
• Web — pale stone with fine dark veining running through it. Detailed at close range, which suits nano and mid-size tanks where people actually look at the rock.
• Hellboy Dragon — the pitted, cratered dragon-stone texture in a warmer tone. See WIO Dragon Stone for the rest of that line.

Sizes and what that weight means

These come in 12 kg and 21 kg boxes, which is a different proposition from buying rock by the piece. You are getting a graded assortment — a dominant piece and supporting stones from one batch, which is exactly what makes a layout hang together. Buying stone from one batch is the single biggest thing amateurs get wrong, and a boxed assortment solves it by default.

21 kg is a lot of rock. For a nano or a small display, look at the nano stones instead — same families, scaled down, and far easier to build with at 10 gallons.

Building with them

One clearly dominant stone, supporting pieces around it, and the grain or strata running the same direction across every piece and tilted slightly rather than dead level. Odd numbers help. Three good rocks beat seven mediocre ones, and a box gives you the option of holding pieces back rather than using everything you bought.

Bury the bases. A stone sitting on top of the substrate reads as an ornament; the same stone with its base buried reads as bedrock the river has exposed.

Water chemistry — test it yourself

WIO does not publish pH or hardness data for these stones. That is worth knowing rather than assuming either way. The test takes ten seconds: a drop of white vinegar on a dry surface. Fizzing means carbonate, which will raise KH and pH gradually for as long as the rock is in the tank. No reaction means inert.

For most community tanks in San Diego this does not matter — our tap is hard and buffered already. It matters a great deal if you keep Caridina shrimp, wild bettas, chocolate gouramis or anything you are breeding in soft acidic water, and it matters in a nano where a large volume of stone sits in a small volume of water. More on the general principle on our aquascaping stones page.

Come and pick the pieces

Stone is worth buying in person because shape is everything and no photo tells you how a rock sits. The Convoy store keeps WIO on the floor and we are happy to let you lay pieces out before you commit. Free water testing at both stores while you are in.