# Holey Rock / Limestone use? Need Advice



## GreeneGerman (Oct 13, 2008)

Hey all i just started my first cichlid tank ever i got a lot of great info passed on from co-workers and other people who run a Malawi type tank. Anyways my concerns run with the idea of using this rock this guy sells off ebay called Holey Rock the guy selling this type of rocks is from Texas if you type in cichlids in the search bar on ebay you will see this guy has his rocks all for sale on the site the rock is white which leads me to believe its limestone of some sort. Anyways this rock looks perfect for cichlids very many hiding sports and from what i read about limestone it will help maintain the pH in your tank. But i also read that it will start to rob your other minerals out of the water? I use crush coral on the bottom of the tank already to help maintain the pH and it seems that i have very little pH loss if any yet and the tank has been running for close to a month. Is that normal? I do use cichlid lake salt to make the water as the lady from the company i spoke to about it would say "stiff" or more like lake Malawi. Anyways i don't want to dump all my money on these nice looking rocks from Texas and find out there doing more harm then good. Wow that was a lot hope i get some good reply's, thanks for reading!

Mod edit: sorry for the short sighted, but I removed the size=18 tags...


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## Cich of it all (Mar 29, 2007)

Limestone / holey rocks won't do any harm. Limestone only has a limited effect on the hardness of the water, and if you're already using a buffer, the rocks probably won't even make a difference. The only problem with nice pieces of holey rock is the price. There are some awesome pieces for sale, but the prices are sky high!


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## BurgerKing (Jul 1, 2008)

The rock you saw is usually called Texas Holey Rock, it is made of limestone which is a "buffer", meaning it will raise your PH, the cichlid lake salt and crushed coral are also buffers. What is your current PH? You may not need any more buffers.

Im not sure if it will rob you of other minerals so i cant really help you there, hopefully somebody more experienced will chime in soon.


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## GreeneGerman (Oct 13, 2008)

BurgerKing said:


> The rock you saw is usually called Texas Holey Rock, it is made of limestone which is a "buffer", meaning it will raise your PH, the cichlid lake salt and crushed coral are also buffers. What is your current PH? You may not need any more buffers.
> 
> Im not sure if it will rob you of other minerals so i cant really help you there, hopefully somebody more experienced will chime in soon.


my ph stays up around 8.2 has not droped yet are you trying to say by adding lime stone it might go even higher?


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## Cich of it all (Mar 29, 2007)

> hopefully somebody more experienced will chime in soon


Was this an insult? :lol: 
Limestone will not raise your ph any higher than 8.2. I had 500 lbs. of it in a 90 gallon tank - my tap water is 8.2 ph to start with - the tank water stayed at 8.2 even with the rock.


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## BurgerKing (Jul 1, 2008)

sorry, no. there wasnt any posts in front of mine while i was typing it, lol. :lol: I forgot to press submit for like ten minutes and didnt look for any new posts.


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## trigger (Sep 6, 2002)

BurgerKing said:


> ... which is a "buffer", meaning it will raise your PH ...


Well,not exactly. It will stabilise the PH at the value the water will reach given several other conditions. You can not just make your PH higher and higher just by adding more limestone.


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## GreeneGerman (Oct 13, 2008)

trigger said:


> BurgerKing said:
> 
> 
> > ... which is a "buffer", meaning it will raise your PH ...
> ...


yeah but i dont have to worry about how much i put in right? there is no ratio i should have to worry about? and if i do add alot of limestone like i want to do should i watch any of my other minerals in the water?


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## Matts_Cichlids (Jul 29, 2007)

No dont worry and you can put as much limestone in as you like.


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