Limestone in Texas as Live rock?

Found a few hundred tons of really nice looking lime stone right down the street from me. It's all free for anyone to take from a road construction that just finished.

I read that lime stone is commonly used as DIY live rock, so is there anything I should look out for? I can basically fill my whole tank with this stuff for free and then just seed palm sized actual live rock to get it going.

Im assuming I would not need to cure it, but im just wondering what I should look out for as far as what minnerals might be in them.

 

Is it porous?

 

I dont think limestone has any harmful metals in it....
So it might be okay...I remember a thread on it not long ago and if I remember right DrFragestien indicated it as an okay rock ro use....
I belive it is a fairly pourus rock....
I personally wouldnt use anything in my tank except actual reefrock....
Or the DIY rock....
BTJM
Danny

 

It should be safe for your aquarium. It is very porous, and allows water to travel through it easily. It is what aquafers form in. The only thing is I would watch your calcium levels because it is CaCO3 or Calcium Carbonate. If you wanted to be on the safe side, get some water change water and place the rock and water in a bucket. Put a powerhead and heater in there to mimic your tank while testing the calcium for about a week. Thats just if you want to be careful. If I were in your shoes, I would use it. I think limestone is a wonderful rock.

BTW, im guessing your either from north san antonio, austin, or somewhere in the edwards plateau(hill country) to have such abundant limestone.. am I right?

 

Texas Holy rock is commonly used. It is just calcium carbonate. It is really dense though. Not real open live LR. I think it is decrative, but I would not want all my rock to be that. Very heavy.

 

Ya im in Austin and the stuff is everywhere. The area im in was under the ocean a million years ago so we have lots of ancient sea bed. My house sits on a granite and limestone hill.

The limestone I see here is very porus. Lots of holes and little cave like structures that are very attractive. The stone it self is easy to shape and cut, so it is my idea to cut and drill it to do my aqua landscape.

Ill do some tests before had for sure.

 

well it looks like the stuff we have here for free is being sold here
Oceanpro Aquatics, Inc.

Texas Holey rock is so common here you can just dig it up in less than 3 inches of soil and it looks like this.

 

can you spot the Texas Holy Rock in my tank? (I spell it holy on purpose)

 

i put limestone in my tank once and it raised the calcium level so high i started losing livestock. big water change and removal of limestone seemed to fix the issue though. i personally wouldnt suggest it.

 

I guess the word porous is subjectively used here. When I asked if it was porous, I not referring to the swiss cheese appearance of the rock. I was inquiring about he rock structure.

This was brought up on another thread. If I hadn't seen this stuff in my LFS for $2.49/lb a few months back, I wouldn't know any better. This rock is not porous in the regard that it has micro channels and missing material in its internal structure. Porous material is lighter in weight because it is so. This "Texas Holey Rock" weighs a ton, or at least the stuff in my LFS did. Notwithstanding the large visible holes that are the namesake of this particular rock, this stuff is NOT porous. It's solid as, well--as a rock. Just lifting it in your hand is evidence of that. Now yours might be different, but it looks like the same stuff. Look at the surfaces of the rock. Do you see any areas where you could stick a pin INTO it? If not, it's not what you want.

Personally I'd avoid it. LR serves a very specific function in our tanks, be it FOWLR or reef tank. It provides surface area. The more porous, the more surface area. It's like comparing a bio-ball to a golf ball. The bio-ball is porous, the golf ball is not. Pound for pound, a porous material will house exponentially more bacteria.

Further, the 3rd class of bacteria--those which change nitrite to nitrate, do so in an anaerobic setting, such as within the very deep micro channels found in true LR.

The fish sure would love the hiding places and the channels provided them just by the very shape and nature of the rock, and no doubt; the stuff is beautiful to look at. But there is LR, and there is Texas Holey Rosk. Sorry, robwerden--this isn't live rock. :-/