A drive into any mountains if possible can be worth while and fun with many more options for those with open eyes and determination. River stone is totally workable, just have to keep in mind the environment it comes from and use that to inspire your scape for it to really shine. After having used it myself I would only do so again in hillstream style tanks I believe. Rock yards are also worth looking up and will often be willing to sell in quantities we look for as hobbyists. Photos of my last mountain collections below.

 

No mountains where I live, I rarely ever find stones that aren't rounded river stone. I like the colors you can find them in, just the shape is not always ideal. I've collected a bunch of deep "blue" colored stones, just looking for substrates and wood now.

 

I think you could break river rocks into cool shapes and maybe a scape with the broken sides showing could look interesting. I love that red rock thats in the picture too it looks like it might even be a little bit of petrified wood

 

I believe the pretty red rock is gneiss, there may well be a bit of petrified wood as the forrest here is 10s of thousands of years old and a couple pieces really carry the tell tale signs. My first scapes on our new tanks were done using river rock, I hunted down odd shapes and sizes with character and used super naturals sand from caribsea for aesthetics and flora max for planting. Id recommend making a 10% hydrochloric acid solution to test anything that you cant readily identify if you do happen to find anything different in the natural mix.

 

I had this in a little countertop shrimp jar for a while. You can find some pretty looking rocks even if they're just river rocks.
You could even argue that some lava rocks are river rocks if they've been rounded up enough.

I mean, I found a lot of these in a river, so they ought to count, right? :wink2:

 

Not my tank...but one of my inspirations when I do set up my new tank...

 

I live in an area where there is an abundance of rivers and streams not to mention lots and lots of Manzanita everywhere so getting access to supplies is very easy. I am not much for just basic rounded grey rocks with no real character in them so I chose some nice orange ish colored rocks and some small pieces of manzanita. It is a 29 gallon high tech aquarium with pressurized co2, ferts, and high lighting. This picture is the aquarium last weekend at about three months old. Things are really starting to grow in and I am noticing some changes I want to make to the plant placement.

Stock

6 white cloud tetras
6 neon tetras
1 albino Cory catfish
12 Japanese algae eater shrimp
2 Nerite snails

Equipment

Lighting - Finnex planted plus 24/7 SE and an aquabeam growbeam 600
Fluval 306 canister filter

 

Just finished this scape the other day. Planning on doing a Vietnamese hillstream tank with Hillstream Loaches and Vietnamese White Cloud Minnows. Unsure if I should add a crypt or java fern for a touch of green or not. It's a 40 breeder.

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I would suggest giving the round rocks a bit of direction in their size. Ex: you might want to have the smaller ones to the right and gradually get larger towards the big rocks. Also, do you think there is an issue with the different textures of rocks? I am torn on this point. For plants, you could definitely have some around the larger rocks and have some sprinkled in around the smaller ones. That's just my thoughts

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My new 55G setup using Yangtze river stones (white ones) with a mix of smaller colored stones. Colors look better in person. Some reason phone camera bleaches everything out.

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I was about to ask basically the same question when I found this (Thanks Q!). So I'm reviving this thread to see if there are any other suggestions or images out there. I have some locally collected "river" rocks, but have selected for angular shapes, but with rounded edges - no totally smooth egg-shaped stones. A few are the size of VERY asymmetric footballs, and one is a "corner" from a stone yard I got years ago - the rounded yet craggy look of it just grabbed my attention.

So - any other inspiration using worn river rocks that aren't really round, per-se?

Thanks!

 

It seems like it matches really well with spiderwood, maybe try incorporating that into your scape as well? And non-round rocks? You mean rocks with character?

 

Yes, LOL - my inarticulate way of saying "rocks with character". I'm looking to do a triangular overall shape (footprint is 36" x 18", and viewpoints are front AND on-end) and have a Manazantita branches, some spiderwood pieces, and some very old unused Malaysian Driftwood (yes, I guess I've been hoarding hardscape).

The more I look at it, the more I like the 2nd picture in Nubster's Post #6 on this thread. Still getting my head around how to get more vertical presence of rockwork.

I've found a few more images for inspiration:

That one uses river stones very nicely - Definitely the "aged" patina really adds to it.

And I really like the way the rocks are emerging from the dense plants on this tank:

Still gettin' the creative juices flowing. When I get home (travelling) I'll put some photos of stones up, maybe try out a few formations for feedback.

 

I've a cobble (rounded rocks) set up... it's still quite new and a little too much algae in places: https://www.plantedtank.net/forums/12-tank-journals/1277505-48g-low-tech-cobbles-emersed-growth.html

I'd say a range of sizes is the key thing to getting it looking good, and try and match the substrate in so it looks like it's made of the same stuff as the rocks.