Clay Pots

[thebbqguy]

Is this type of aquascaping common, or is likely being used because it was convenient?

[Regalblue]

Clay pots are common to use with substrate spawners , like New Worlds & West Africans. But, they are commonly used because they're cheap & easy to find. 

[Cat(fish)lady]

I love clay pots as an alternative to stacks of heavy rocks.
I also watch the housewares sections of thrift store for fire glazed pottery. As long as it's glazed and baked and not just painted, wash in a little vinegar water and rinse and they are good to go!

Many of my tanks have a mix of different decor. Wood, rocks, pots, pvc and terra cotta pipe, cholla wood.

[thebbqguy]

Cat(fish),

The pots are starting to grow on me more and more. I am getting nervous at the idea of 150 pounds of rocks in my aquarium.

If I am understanding correctly the main idea is to allow the fish a place to hide if needed/desired. At 99 cents each from my local Mejier, they are very affordable as well.

[Ron]

A gallon of water is a little over 8 lbs (8.3 IIRC). A 100 gallon tank would be holding up to 830 lbs at a minimum (presuming it's filled up).

Rocks are heavier than water, thus they sink, but they are also displacing water. For 150lbs of rock, it'd really be like adding 150lbs - (the weight of the water displaced) and not really an additional 150lbs on top of where you'd started.

Another positive of clay pots is that they don't displace as much water. If you had a 100 gallon tank filed up with clay pots, perhaps you'd still have 80-85 gallons of water volume. If you filled up that tank with rocks, you might have 60-75 gallons of water volume (this is just meant as an example and would largely depend on what "filled up" was and with what kind of rocks (round river rock taking up more room than holey rock or lace rock).

I think it comes down to what you'd like to look at. For me, I like natural aquascaping and there is no large quantity of clay pots in the lakes where these fish come from, but there are rocks. So I choose rocks. But its your tank, so go with what you'll enjoy. 

[thebbqguy]

As a newbie I see the clay pots as a desirable option. Keeping more water in the tank should also mean more varieties of fish could potentially be kept in the aquarium while maintaining relative stability of the tank. It seems more water is slightly more forgiving to a novice like me.

I would love to have a 150 gallon tank with premium rock aquascaping, but one step at a time right? I think I need to walk before I run (sprint) later on. 

[mibwb]

What about using tufa rock?  I know it doesn't look like the rocks in a natural setting. But I have yet, to see rocks from Africa for sell......just wood.   It is lighter in weight when compared to size or is it too porous to use in freshwater?

[Ron]

or is it too porous to use in freshwater?

There is nothing wrong with porosity as that is a positive feature of most biomedia. The problem is that most of the porous rocks (tufa, lava, etc) tend to be very abrasive as well, which might damage fish accidentally. This can be mitigated to some extent by allowing thick algae growth upon such rocks to help lower how abrasive they are, but they still wouldn't be my first choice.