Texas Holy Rock?????

[trkdoc]

I was on ---- and came across some beautiful rocks that are sold by texas holy rock. Has anyone else seen these or has any one purchased them for a reef tank. They are described as being somewhat porus....is this a good thing ???? They go on to say that they will maintain the nitrite levels at 7.8......is that ok???

 

[aggie05]

I have never seen them in a SW tank and I wouldn't put them in one. They are almost always used for cichlid tanks. Being from near the area that the rock comes from I would assume it probably has some harmful stuff in it for a SW tank.

 

[cprdnick]

it keeps the NITRITE levels at WHAT . I'm pretty new at the saltwater thing, but I'm pretty sure that I remember everyone saying that u'r Nitrites should be at Zero as much as possible.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong

 

[aggie05]

He is talking about ph i think. It is supposed to be a good buffer.
But to tell you where the source of this rock is. It comes from the Texas Hill Country, you can walk around and pick it up off the ground out there. Not something I would want to put in my SW tank.

 

[cprdnick]

RIGHT, I live in TX, I've been to about every part of the state in the past two years. On all of the hikes, backpackings, and 4x4 trips I've been on, I haven't yet seen anything on the ground that is even worthy of my Fresh tanks.
Trkdoc, I would probably think about that investement. As far as I know, the PH in Fresh tank should be around that measurement, but everyone keeps driving 8.1-8.2 when it comes to marine.

 

[overanalyzer]

Originally posted by cprdnick
RIGHT, I live in TX, I've been to about every part of the state in the past two years. On all of the hikes, backpackings, and 4x4 trips I've been on, I haven't yet seen anything on the ground that is even worthy of my Fresh tanks.
Trkdoc, I would probably think about that investement. As far as I know, the PH in Fresh tank should be around that measurement, but everyone keeps driving 8.1-8.2 when it comes to marine.
yeah and if your PH buffers lower it is a major PITA!!! Could not figure out why everything died - and crabs crawled out of their shells ... PH was 7.75 .....

 

[j21kickster]

texas holy rock is un natural in salt water tanks- it is not porous by any means- it has some large holes but iy is one of the heaviest rocks that you can get- it is very dense rock- i wouldnt bother with it- unless you really like it

 

[ophiura]

Sorry guys, have to disagree.
This rock is karst (eroded) limestone; most is, in fact, old coral reef. If you look at some pieces very closely, it has a variety of marine fossils (mostly snails) in it. Keep in mind that most of Texas used to be shallow ocean at one point, which is why it is a fantastic place to collect fossils.
It is commonly used in cichlid tanks because it keeps pH HIGH (same as we desire in salt tanks), and is really not all that different than LR in its chemical composition. It is not quite as porous, but is a good base rock if you can't afford all LR.
It is quite commonly sold for SW tanks. You may soak it for awhile to remove any soil and dust, but, IMO, it is fine for saltwater tanks, assuming it is clean.
The nitrite thing is likely a typo, they are probably talking about freshwater pH....due to salt in our saltwater, the water has a higher pH and the limestone additionally helps this (just as limestone aka carbonate sand or crushed coral does). The limestone will not lower the pH in a saltwater tank to 7.8, but will help buffer 'up' the pH of (normally lower pH) freshwater tanks.
But, to my knowledge, it does not possess any 'miraculous' characteristics and is not particularly 'holy' but holey ba...dum dum. LOL OK, its late

 

[overanalyzer]

Originally posted by ophiura
Sorry guys, have to disagree.
This rock is karst (eroded) limestone; most is, in fact, old coral reef. If you look at some pieces very closely, it has a variety of marine fossils (mostly snails) in it. Keep in mind that most of Texas used to be shallow ocean at one point, which is why it is a fantastic place to collect fossils.
It is commonly used in cichlid tanks because it keeps pH HIGH (same as we desire in salt tanks), and is really not all that different than LR in its chemical composition. It is not quite as porous, but is a good base rock if you can't afford all LR.
It is quite commonly sold for SW tanks. You may soak it for awhile to remove any soil and dust, but, IMO, it is fine for saltwater tanks, assuming it is clean.
The nitrite thing is likely a typo, they are probably talking about freshwater pH....due to salt in our saltwater, the water has a higher pH and the limestone additionally helps this (just as limestone aka carbonate sand or crushed coral does). The limestone will not lower the pH in a saltwater tank to 7.8, but will help buffer 'up' the pH of (normally lower pH) freshwater tanks.
But, to my knowledge, it does not possess any 'miraculous' characteristics and is not particularly 'holy' but holey ba...dum dum. LOL OK, its late
Interesting ... you learn something new every day ... well I'l stick with my PH buffer instead of holey rock .... blessed or not ...

 

[aggie05]

After reading that I am very dissapointed in myself for not thinking of that. I even took geology. Now that I read your post though, you are absolutely right. I still wouldn't want it in my tank though, just doesn't look right.

 

[imo]

In Utah out by the great Salt Lake we have a region called Aragonite. It has thousands of pounds of calcium carbonate rocks that we just go and dig up, wash off and throw in our reef tanks. It is very porous and looks great after it is seeded with some live rock. There is also some dunes on the beaches of the lake that we call Oolitic sand that is also 100% calcium carbonate (verefied by state geologists). This stuff works great. What I'm getting at is just because it's not from the ocean dosn't mean it can't be used in our reef tanks. If we can find alternative methods of building our reef tanks then we aren't depleting the oceans reefs.

 

[imo]

If you go to
http://www.utahreefs.com/
and look at the tanks of the month section, the July tank of the month was done almost completely with "Utah Aragonite rock ans Oolitic sand".

 

[overanalyzer]

Originally posted by IMO
In Utah out by the great Salt Lake we have a region called Aragonite. It has thousands of pounds of calcium carbonate rocks that we just go and dig up, wash off and throw in our reef tanks. It is very porous and looks great after it is seeded with some live rock. There is also some dunes on the beaches of the lake that we call Oolitic sand that is also 100% calcium carbonate (verefied by state geologists). This stuff works great. What I'm getting at is just because it's not from the ocean dosn't mean it can't be used in our reef tanks. If we can find alternative methods of building our reef tanks then we aren't depleting the oceans reefs.
Exactly!! That is why I like using the Hawaiian Island Rock as base rock ... though if I could go get super porous rock and free oolithic aragonite sand I would be all over it!

 

[ross]

I have about 20lbs of it in my tank for base rock and it hasn't done anything bad. ph is normal-8.2

 

[daniel411]

Those rocks looked really nice in that tank of the month! Cover them with some coraline.. and they'd be sweet!